


Bleed On Me

by Trams



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Action/Adventure, First Time, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pining, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-23 01:13:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 39,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10709046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trams/pseuds/Trams
Summary: Guy is wounded on an alien planet, and he and Kyle have to trek through a dangerous forest in search of a way to cure Guy. On the way they discover not only their feelings about each other, but also a larger mystery about the planet they are on. A mystery which might have consequences for the entire universe...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is technically finished, it was finished last year. But I will be posting it one chapter a day.
> 
> Mainly posting it because it's that or letting it die on my laptop, and that doesn't seem fair to anyone.

Kyle and Guy landed in the central square of what appeared to be the planet Hedri's largest, and possibly only city, though it was still not by any means a large city. Some of the natives looked up as Kyle touched ground, but most of them carried on without paying the two green lanterns any attention. Even though the natives had yet to invent space travel – and considering the cows with large horns pulling carriages, they also had yet to invent the engine – they were not unfamiliar with off-worlders, something the lantern of the sector had told Kyle, when he asked about the planet. However when Kyle and Guy had come flying they had almost collided with a hot-air balloon, so they did at least have a form of air travel.

“Where'd you say this contact would meet us?” Guy asked, while taking in their surroundings with an unimpressed look.

The streets were either packed dirt or in some places like the square there were cobblestones. All the buildings were made out of wood, no taller than two stories, and all built together around the square making it more like a circle than a square.

“This place is going to go up in flames any day,” Guy pointed out, before Kyle could answer his first question. Kyle was busy looking around until he found the sign he was looking for.

“Come on, this way,” Kyle said, and started walking. “He said he'd meet us at a bar,” Kyle continued, “so you'll be right at home.”

“Heh.”

Kyle and Guy were tracking a particularly notorious weapons smuggler, named Kerets, and his gang of ruthless thugs. After weeks of work they had finally stumbled over a lead that seemed to imply that Kerets's base of operation was on Hedri, because who would suspect someone to operate from a planet where the natives hadn't even made it into space yet.

Kyle stopped outside a green door, above it hung a sign which Kyle's ring helpfully translated to _'The Unicorn's Horn'_. Two short chains, dangling from the bottom corners of the sign, held what looked like it could be a unicorn horn, or at least something that fit Kyle's perception of what a unicorn's horn should look like.

“Strange name for a bar,” Guy muttered under his breath, while Kyle opened the door and held it open for Guy to walk through first.

The bar was cramped, badly lit and there was a strong smell of alcohol in the air. It wasn't as clean as Guy and Kyle's own bar. There were pools of liquid on the floor, on some chairs, and most of the tables, Kyle's shoes stuck to the sticky floor slightly as he walked.

It was mid day on Hedri so the bar was mostly empty except for four locals, two were sitting in a booth, a third was lying on the floor underneath a table, and the last one – with an eyepatch over one eye, and a large scar on his face – was sitting alone by another table. Behind the counter the bartender was cleaning a glass with a dirty looking rag, which convinced Kyle he didn't want to drink anything from this place.

He couldn't see any off-worlders in the room, and Kyle frowned.

The natives of Hedri were humanoid, but their skin tones varied from various hues of blue, their ears were longer and pointier, and they all had long white hair, though it seemed to be in fashion to keep their hair in a mohawk like style.

“You know we should just arrest him too,” Guy mumbled to Kyle. It took Kyle a moment to understand who Guy was talking about.

“I know but Zkrill only has circumstantial evidence, and nothing actually tying this guy to any crimes.”

“We're asking another smuggler for help capturing a smuggler,” Guy muttered, he'd been grumbling about this the whole way to Hedri.

“At least he's not smuggling weapons,” Kyle said.

“We don't know that,” Guy mumbled. At that point they were interrupted by the Hedrian with the eyepatch calling out, and waving to theem with a hand that was missing a finger.

“There you are! I've been waiting for half an arn.”

“Arn?” Guy asked. Kyle could understand Guy's confusion, the ring was usually better at translating local units of time into something which made more sense to them. However Kyle was mostly surprised that their contact was one of the natives, he had been expecting an off-worlder.

Kyle, followed by Guy, walked over to the table.

“You Graxkx?” Kyle asked. The man looked unimpressed with Kyle's pronounciation of his name.

“It's pronounced Graks- no, nevermind call me Grax,” he said with a headshake. “Please sit down.”

Kyle gave the chair – which looked a little bit like a breeze could topple it over – a look before he sat down carefully. The chair wobbled and creaked a little, but didnt break apart.

“Rumor has it you know where we can find Kerets,” Guy said.

“I can locate everything, and everyone,” Grax said, without a hint of modesty.

“There's also a rumor that you are a smuggler as well,” Guy said. Kyle sighed inside, and put a hand on Guy's arm.

“Guy–” Kyle started but Grax interrupted.

“Allegedly,” Grax said, a smile playing on his lips, he looked more amused than angry or offended.

“As you can see I am a Hedrian, so I have naturally never left this planet. How could I possibly be a smuggler?” he asked with what sounded like false innocence. “No, I am just someone who enjoys collecting information. And one of the little bits of information I've picked up happens to be the location of Kerets's base of operation.”

“We'd like to know where it is,” Kyle said. Taking over the conversation before Guy decided to arrest Grax anyway.

“Oh, well of course,” Grax said. “But I don't part with information unless I am getting something in return.” He eyed Kyle and Guy, a calculating look on his face.

“We have money.”

“And that would be great if what I wanted was money,” Grax said. “No, what I would like is something else entierly.”

“And what's that?” Kyle asked. Still with a hand on Guy's arm, because he could feel Guy becoming even more tense.

“Oh, nothing much,” Grax said, in that way that implied that whatever it was he wanted was the opposite of _'nothing'_.

“Did you see the large forest on your way into town?” Grax asked.

Kyle nodded. The forest in question seemed to cover a large part of the continent actually. “There is a silver oak among all of the trees in the forest. The acorns on that tree look like gold. That's only their color mind you. They aren't actually made out of gold. I would like one of those acorns.”

“An acorn? That's what you want?” Kyle asked.

“Yes,” Grax said.

“Can't you get that yourself?” Guy asked.

“I would have to trudge though the forest, you can just fly over it can't you? The oak should be in the middle of a clearing, you should have no trouble spotting it from the air.”

Guy's expression was clearly suspicious, and Kyle frowned. It felt like they were being played, but he wasn't sure what game Grax was playing, or if he just really wanted a gold colored acorn.

“Alright,” Kyle said. They didn't have much else to go on. Unless they wanted to search all over the planet for Kerets, and at some point word would get out to him that there were two Green Lanterns on Hedri, and he would probably bolt.

“Great,” Grax said and smiled.

Kyle got up, and pulled Guy with him. They were leaving, and heading to the forest right away. The sooner they did this, the sooner they could go and arrest Kerets.

“I want to punch him,” Guy said once they were outside again.

“Me too,” Kyle said. Grax was clearly hiding things, and Kyle didn't trust him at all.

They took to the air again.

They didn't have to fly more than a mile before they could see the forest. It spread out in front of them like an ocean of trees. They were very tall trees, all of them with dark brown almost black trunks and leaves in brown and dark red. At the outskirts of the forest, the trees were spaced out a bit, so that it was possible to look down and see grass, flowers and bushes growing in between the dark trees. However further ahead of them the trees seemed to get denser, and it was becoming harder to see anything through the thick foliage.

Kyle looked away from the trees and up at Guy who was flying ahead of him.

“What game do you think he's playing?” he asked.

“I have no idea,” Guy said, “but I don't trust him.”

“This seems like a simple enough errand but–” Kyle said.

“You think it's going to turn out to be a lot more difficult?” Guy finished for him.

“Mhm,” Kyle said.

“Yeah me too– Hey! There's a clearing!”

Kyle flew up beside Guy and looked in the direction he was pointing, and it did look like a clearing. They flew closer, and soon, instead of red and brown leaves, they were looking down at a tree with silver colored branches, and leaves that glittered in the sun.

Kyle and Guy landed on the long soft green grass, there were violet and light blue flowers, and scattered on the ground around the tree were gold colored acorns. Kyle spun around in a slow circle. The trees around the clearing formed almost a sort of wall, a few bushes with spindly, thorny branches without any leaves, spilled out from underneath the trees and into the clearing. Kyle stopped and looked at the oak instead, it looked very old, it was shorter than the trees around it, and the branches were twisted and crooked. It wasn't a uniform silver color, instead it had a lot of different shades of silver, as well as the occasional spot of black.

It took him another moment to realize how silent it was. When they had landed Kyle had been sure he had heard bird song, but now they were standing there in complete silence. He frowned.

“I don't like this,” Kyle said, voice low. He took a step so that he not only was standing side by side with Guy, but so that they were close enough to touch. They had their backs to the silver oak.

“I–” Guy started when suddenly the stillness was interrupted by rustling sounds from the forest around them. Kyle tensed up, getting ready, though what he was getting ready for he didn't know.

When it happened it happened so fast that Kyle didn't have time to react. Loud crashing noises came from the forest and between the trees came a white beast rushing straight for Kyle and Guy. Kyle had a second to identify it as a huge white horse with a horn on it's forehead. It had it's head lowered the horn coming straight for Kyle, when Guy shouted.

“Kyle!”

Kyle was shoved to the ground. Landing on his stomach. He heard Guy scream in pain. Kyle rolled over on his back and saw Guy pinned against the oak, the unicorn's horn had gone straight through Guy's left shoulder. Guy's face was white.

“Guy!” Kyle shouted. The unicorn's ears twitched. It wrenched its horn free. Guy screamed in pain, Kyle had never heard him sound like that. He watched as Guy crumpled to the ground. Kyle felt himself go cold, his chest clenching. Guy wasn't moving, and Kyle couldn't tell from where he stood if Guy was still breathing. The unicorn spun around and turned to Kyle.

“Shit!” Kyle exclaimed and scrambled to his feet. Raising his hand with the ring he tried to think of something quick he could do. The unicorn snarled, it actually snarled and when it opened its mouth Kyle could see sharp teeth that belonged in the mouth of a predator, not a horse with a horn stuck on its forehead.

A loud screeching noise could be heard from the forest, the unicorn stilled, as did Kyle looking towards the noise. It sounded again, like a cross between a bagpipe and a violin being played terribly, but so very loud. Kyle had to stop himself from holding his hands over his ears, even though he wanted to, the sound felt like knives stabbing his eardrums.

The unicorn neighed, reared up on its hind legs and then bolted back into the forest it had come from. Kyle rushed to Guy's side and fell to his knees next to him. His heart beating fast he put two fingers against Guy's neck. He breathed out a sigh of relief when he felt a pulse. He helped Guy sit up, and leaning against the tree. The wound in his shoulder was bleeding a lot, and Guy's breathing was uneven. Kyle made a construct bandage over the wound on both sides of Guy's shoulder, but it only took seconds for the blood to start soaking through.

Kyle was about to try and get a response from Guy, when there was rustling from the trees again. Kyle moved to sit in front of Guy to protect him. The rustling had come from the same direction as the loud noise. Whatever it was that had scared away the unicorn had to be bad news Kyle thought. However a second later one of the natives came out into the clearing. This native had a shaved head, and a wrinkled old face, and one of the first thoughts that popped into Kyle's mind was _“they look like a blue Yoda”_.

The blue Yoda took one look at Kyle and Guy and shook their head.

“Foolish aliens,” they said, and Kyle realized that it was a woman. She walked towards them, back hunched and she was wearing baggy dark red and brown clothes.

“Who are you?” Kyle asked. Still crouched in front of Guy.

“I'm Zzaxaxa,” she said, and Kyle knew there would be no way he could ever pronounce that name.

“What was it that made the noise?” Kyle asked.

“I did,” she said. She was now so close to Kyle and Guy that she could kneel down next to them. She patted what looked a little bit like a blue and red trumpet hanging from her belt.

“My friend's hurt,” Kyle said and glanced at Guy again. His eyes were starting to flutter open again, but not even Kyle's construct seemed to be having any effect on stopping the blood. Kyle desperately wished Soranik was there.

Zzaxaxa took one look at Guy, her lips pursed together and she shook her head.

“I am sorry about your loss,” she said.

“He's not dead!” Kyle protested. Starting to feel angry. Guy was still alive, he still had a pulse, Kyle just had to stop the bleeding and then Guy would be fine.

“He will be soon,” she said. She plucked a small leather pouch from her belt and started to lean towars Guy's shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Kyle asked, and stopped her. She gave him an annoyed look.

“Helping,” she said. “As best I can.” She sprinkled a purple powder on the wound. Guy's blood started to bubble and fizz before it turned completely black. Kyle stared wide eyed and then grabbed the woman's hand when she started to lean away again.

“What did you do?” Kyle asked, staring at the black coagulated blood.

“Stopped the bleeding for now. The powder should be in effect for about a day.” she said. “But I'm afraid he won't survive long.”

“He will survive,” Kyle insisted. She gave him a look of pity.

“He was wounded by a unicorn,” she said. “All wounds inflicted by the unicorns are fatal.”

“I just have to get him to a doctor,” Kyle said. It would take some time to fly back to Oa, but if he could get more that powder then maybe– His train of thought was interruted by the woman.

“A doctor won't help, it is a magical wound,” she said.

Kyle bit his bottom lip and glanced at Guy. He was so still. Face still pale and contorted in obvious pain.

“There has to be something I can do?” Kyle said. Frustration growing inside of him. He wasn't going to let Guy die, that was completely out of the question.

“There's–” she paused. “Well, there is a legend but no one has ever proven it to be true. Some say there's a large hole in the ground, deep in the heart of the forest. There's supposed to be a flower there which is supposed to have amazing healing properies if it is ground down into a powder.”

“I'll go there,” Kyle said.

“It takes many days of walking,” she said. “He will die before you reach it.”

“I can fly,” Kyle said starting to rise up. She put a hand on Kyle's arm.

“The forest is so thick, you can't see the ground between the trees.”

“I'm sure I'll see a hole in the ground,” Kyle protested.

“Centuries ago, perhaps. But now. The trees have hidden it. They grew so tall and so fast. There is no way of spotting it now. There have been balloons trying to map the forest from the air, but so far no one has been able to see the hole. Many don't even believe it exists.”

“Well, I will walk then,” Kyle said. “If I can have some more of that powder I'm sure I can make it.”

“You don't understand,” she said. Kyle was feeling his patience running out but he pushed down the impulse to scream. He bit the insides of his cheeks to keep quiet.

“The powder only stops the bleeding for a couple of days if applied every day. Eventually he will start loosing blood again. And that isn't to mention the other side effects. He will be in pain at all times and it will grow worse and worse. Many are those who simply chose to end their lives rather than wait for the wound to kill them, because the pain is too much.”

“If he doesn't succumb to the pain, he will eventually develop a fever, and become delirious. No one lasts long after that.”

Kyle looked over at Guy and saw his eyes were open, and he was looking at Kyle. When he noticed that Kyle was looking at him he gave him a thin smile.

“We can do it,” he said, voice low. “I've got you partner, and I'm stronger than I look.” He grinned, it was weak but it was still a grin. “And I already look plenty strong.”

Kyle couldn't help smiling back at him. He would do whatever it took to get that flower and cure Guy.

“We are going to try and find it,” Kyle said. He turned back to Zzaxaxa. She nodded.

“You will need these,” she handed him two leather pouches. “Don't worry, I have a lot more. If you run out look for purple flowers. You won't find many deep inside the woods, but they are there.”

Kyle took the pouches, and made a construct bag he could carry over one shoulder. Similiar to the one Indiana Jones had in the movies. The woman continued talking and looking through her own pockets.

“The flower, if it exists, is rumored to be very small, its petals golden colored.”

She pulled something out of a pocket.

“This.” She handed Kyle small glass jar with a white powder. “Is for his pain. Take a small spoon of it and mix it in water.”

Kyle put the jar into the bag.

“Oh right, water and food,” Kyle said, absentmindedly. Hed forgotten about it. The ring could take care of a lot of the nurients their bodies needed so technically they didn't need to eat for a long while, which was especially handy on long space flights. However it often left quite a hollow feeling in his stomach, so Kyle liked being able to at least drink and eat something even if it was just something small – Guy felt the same way, Kyle knew.

“There are small streams here and there in the forest, you should probably carry some of that water with you though. Also don't hunt. The unicorns are carnivours and they will smell any cooking fires. Stick to any berries you can find. Don't eat any of the mushrooms. They have funny effects on us natives, I can't even begin to wonder what they will do to you aliens.” She looked from Kyle to Guy and shook her head.

“You will probably die. There's more than just unicorns in these woods that want to do you harm. But stick to the smaller paths, they aren't used by the unicorns. You might want to head due south since that's the direction to get deeper into the woods,” she paused.

“I think that's all the advice I can give. I've never really ventured deeper into the forest than this.” She looked at Guy again.

“I do wish you luck though.” She handed Kyle another pouch. “Sprinkle this around your camp at night. It should keep away some of the animals.” She also dropped a golden acorn in Kyle's hand.

“This is what you came for isn't it?” she asked.

Kyle nodded. She shook her head again.

“Foolish aliens,” she mumbled, and rose to her feet. “Good luck then. Oh, and avoid the silver oaks. They are very protective of those.”

She disappeared into the forest leaing Kyle and Guy alone. Kyle turned to Guy.

“How are you feeling?” He asked. Guy closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“It hurts but it's manageable now,” Guy said. “Help me up and we can start walking.”

“Are you sure? I could make you a stretcher-”

“I can walk,” Guy snapped. Kyle nodded. He helped Guy up, and he wobbled a bit on his feet at first, but Kyle was there to lean on.

“Right, let's go,” Guy said and started walking towards the forest edge. Kyle made a compass.

“That's west,” Kyle said. Guy huffed out a breath and turned to look at Kyle who pointed in the direction of south. Guy walked in the direction Kyle had pointed, and made a construct machete so that he could take the lead into the forest. For now he seemed more or less fine, only wincing a bit every now and again. Kyle would keep an eye on him though. He patted the bag and followed Guy into the forest.


	2. Chapter 2

At first they still had the light coming from the clearing at their backs, but as they ventured deeper into the forest, the light started dwindling. Soon it seemed like dusk, but Kyle knew for a fact that it was still midday on this planet. Some light did get through the thick foliage above their heads, and every now and again there would be a shaft of light where there was a small gap in between branches. The vegetation on the ground changed, from the soft grass with flowers to shrunken twisted bushes that creeped along the ground with long sharp thorns. Instead of flowers there were alien looking mushrooms in red, blue, purple and green all with an unnatural glow to them.

Guy had found a narrow path, though the bushes were trying to reclaim it. There wasn't much call for the machete since there was nothing that grew high enough to be in their way. Guy was still carrying it though. Kyle walked close behind him watching Guy's left arm hanging limp, besides that Guy seemed fine for now, but he worried about what the woman had said about what the wound would do to Guy. Kyle knew that Guy was strong, the pain probably wouldn't get to him any time soon. It was the other thing he worried about, the one she hadn't even really been that clear about. How the wound was magical and it could affect Guy's brain.

He was also worried just how far they would have to walk, because even if they were heading south what if the hole was more to the south-west or south-east of the direction Kyle and Guy were heading. It really had looked like the forest was immense from the air, and on the ground it already felt a little bit like a foolish task. They wouldn't give up though, Kyle would find it. He watched Guy again, the man winced a little bit but he continued walking forward purposefully.

Kyle wished they could fly, but the woman had been correct about the trees covering everything. They would have to fly very slow to zigzag between the trees. The path twisted and winded its way right next next to the trees, they were so close Kyle barely had to stretch out his arms to touch the tall straight tree trunks. The branches hung over the path like a crisscross work of wood and leaves, sometimes they hung so low that Guy and Kyle had to duck underneath them. They didn't say anything as they walked. There were the sounds of fallen leaves and twigs crunching underneath their booths, bird song, and in the distance Kyle thought he could hear the sound of running water.

As they continued walking the sound of water grew stronger and after a little while they reached the source of it. A stream cut off the path, it wasn't particularly deep, but wide, there were stones however which they would be able to use to hop on across. The bushes on both sides had reached across and covered most the surface of the stream, but through the gaps they could see clear water which sparkled in the shaft of light coming down between the leaves.

“Finally, 'm thirsty,” Guy said and knelt down, leaning over the stream.

“Hang on,” Kyle said. Guy looked over his shoulder at Kyle.

“What?” Guy asked, sounding a little bit irritable. The walk had done a little to bring some color back to Guy's face, but considering Guy couldn't hide any emotion from showing on his face in normal cases, it was definitely clear that he was in pain.

“Maybe we shouldn't just drink the water from a strange stream on an alien planet right away,” Kyle pointed out. “We have no idea what's in it.”

“That woman, who by the way looked like Yoda did you notice that?” Guy asked. Kyle bit back a smile. “Anyway she seemed to imply that we should drink any water we found.”

“Yes, well just because she can drink it won't mean we can. Will you just let me,” Kyle stopped next to Guy and let a construct start to take shape. “This won't take long.”

A moment later a pump complete with a water filtration system, and the ring to tell Kyle if the water would be drinkable stood on the edge of the stream.

“Nice,” Guy said. Kyle smiled. Even though they couldn't fly, Kyle was really happy to have the ring, getting through this forest would be difficult enough and doing it without rings would be so much worse. He just hoped it wouldn't take too long and they ran out of charge.

He filled a construct mug with water and gave it to Guy who was sitting down with his back against a tree.

“Thanks,” Guy said with a soft smile Kyle had rarely seen on Guy's face that made Kyle happy to see. Kyle nodded and walked over to the pump again, not thinking about the warm feeling in his chest. Kyle filled several canteens with water and placed them in the bag along with the other things. He took his time, letting Guy rest for a bit, but eventually Guy got to his feet anyway.

“I should carry a few of those as well,” Guy said.

“No need,” Kyle said. Guy frowned.

“It makes no sense that you should carry water for the both of us,” Guy said.

“You're injured you don't-”

“I can take care of myself,” Guy snapped, looking annoyed he grabbed the two canteens Kyle had filled but not yet put down in the bag.

“Guy,” Kyle started. Helping Guy when the man would rather cut off his own arm than ask for help was not going to be easy. Guy started making his way across the stream, jumping from one rock to the other, wincing a little bit with the motion.

Kyle followed. Focusing more on Guy and not paying much attention to the rocks he jumped to.

“Guy,” Kyle tried again when ahead of him Guy had already reached the other side of the stream.

Kyle landed on a wet rock and slipped. He lost his balance and started to fall to his side, arms waving wildly to regain his balance, when a strong hand gripped his wrist and he was pulled against a strong broad chest. The hand around Kyle's wrist let go and instead an arm settled around his waist and he was held against Guy. They floated to the edge of the stream.

“You forget you're wearing a ring?” Guy asked.

“Slipped my mind,” Kyle mumbled, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Guy let go of him and stepped away. Kyle looked at him.

“Well, not only can I take care of myself, I just proved I can save your life too.”

“Falling into a stream would hardly have killed me,” Kyle pointed out. He looked at Guy and tried his best to tone down the concern he felt, it wouldn't do to have Guy think Kyle pitied him, then the man would definitely storm off.

“I just want to help you okay.”

“Yeah, well, I'm not completely helpless yet,” Guy said. “I think I can carry a couple of water bottles.” He picked them up from the ground where he had thrown them when he came to Kyle's aid, and started walking. Kyle followed him with a sigh, this really wasn't going to be easy.

They walked for another hour before Guy opened his mouth again.

“You think the asshole knew this would happen?”

“What?” Kyle asked.

“Grax. You think he wanted us to be attacked by a unicorn? Or do you you think he just assumed us mighty green lanterns would have been able to deal with a little horse with a horn sticking out its forehead?”

“I don't know,” Kyle said. He hadn't thought about it. Of course it could just be that as a local Grax knew that the oak was protected and he himself didn't want to risk being attacked by a unicorn, therefore being able to send two lanterns was the best option.

“He couldn't have known one of us would be injured,” Kyle said.

“Yeah, but he could have been hoping the unicorn would be lucky,” Guy said and then shook his head. “I was injured by a unicorn,” he said, sounding a little bit whiny now. “You won't tell anyone of this right?” Guy turned around to face Kyle, an intense look on his face. “Tell them,” he paused and thought for a second. “You tell them I died battling a dragon.”

“Alright, sure, I'll tell them you died valiantly in battle against a dragon,” Kyle said before he thought about it. He smiled reassuringly and put a hand on Guy's right arm.

“But you are not going to die,” Kyle said.

“‘course I'm not,” Guy said. “I'm indestructible.”

“There you go. You're definitely not going to be killed by a unicorn.”

“Of course,” Guy said. “Still, we will never mention this to anyone. _Ever._ ”

“Not even Hal?”

Guy gave Kyle an annoyed look. Kyle just smiled.

“Especially not Hal,” Guy said, turned around and started walking again.

Since it felt like they walked in permanent dusk it was difficult to tell how late it was becoming. Night therefore fell very fast once it happened. One minute they had at least a little bit of light and in the next moment it was dark. The forest at night was almost pitch black, but the mushrooms growing among the trees, underneath the bushes and in clumps here and there at the side of the path glowed a little bit in the darkness.

Kyle didn't know how much farther they would walk that evening, but since Guy carried on walking Kyle didn't say anything. He didn't want to make Guy upset again by suggesting they stop because of his injury. Even with the glowing mushrooms light wasn't good and Kyle walked into a low hanging tree branch at one point. After a while Kyle heard Guy yawn, but he continued walking.

The yawning continued, and it spread to Kyle as well. He was starting to feel not just tired, but a bit exhausted too. They had walked a lot that day, and he wasn't exactly used to walking long distances. They had both changed their boots to something more suitable hiking, but it would still take some ring power to prevent blisters on their feet.

In front of Kyle, Guy stumbled on something. When regaining his balance he over corrected, he fell towards a tree and had to catch himself with his hands. Kyle could see him wince and heard the gasp of pain.

“Let's stop,” Kyle said. He wanted to ask Guy if he was okay, but he stopped himself.

“Are you sure?” Guy asked.

“Yeah, I'm tired. Let's set up camp here.” To make his point Kyle created a small tent in the middle of the path. Guy gave it a considering look.

“Would probably best to conserve ring power,” Guy said.

“You mean share a tent?” Kyle asked. Guy nodded. Kyle was about to make his tent bigger when Guy put a hand on Kyle's ring hand.

“I'll do it though,” Guy said.

“What? Why?”

“Should save your ring,” Guy said, before Kyle could say anything about that Guy glanced at Kyle's bag and said:

“Didn't that woman give you something to put around our camp to keep away animals.

“Oh right,” Kyle said. He lit up his ring so he could see something as he rummaged through the bag. He soon came up with the right pouch and went off to sprinkle the white-silver colored powder in a circle around their patch of the path while Guy made them a tent.

Later when they both were lying in the tent – in sleeping bags they didn't really need as the rings kept them at optimal temperature at all times. However it seemed wrong to just lie on the mattresses without sleeping bags, it wasn't really tenting that way – Kyle asked Guy:

“So why are we saving my ring?” Even though he already knew the answer. Kyle was lying on his side and looking at Guy who was on his back staring up at the ceiling of the tent, but he turned his head to look at Kyle.

“You know why,” Guy said. Voice and expression serious. Kyle both wanted and didn't want Guy to voice the actual reason.

“Guy,” Kyle said, unsure what to say.

“If the worst should happen-” Guy started.

“It won't,” Kyle said, voice full of determination. He wasn't going to let it happen.

“Kyle,” Guy said. He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Good night.” He mumbled and turned over on his side, his back to Kyle.

“Good night,” Kyle mumbled.

They both knew. Kyle would need enough charge in his ring to get back to Oa once this all was over, but Guy might not need it. Kyle closed his eyes trying to push that thought away. He remembered looking out at the forest when they had been flying, how it seemed to go on for an infinity. It was a lot of forest to look through to find a single hole.

Soon he could hear the soft snores coming from Guy, and Kyle was jealous that the man could still fall asleep so easily. But then berated himself for it, Guy needed the sleep, if the pain did indeed get worse then he probably would start to struggle to sleep in time. Instead Kyle lay on his back and stared up at the green ceiling, unable to sleep even though his body felt absolutely exhausted.

During the day’s walk the forest had seemed surprisingly calm and safe considering what had happened in the clearing, Kyle had almost expected they would be attacked by monsters every other minute, but everything had been so still and calm. The only sounds were those made by birds. At night though the forest seemed filled with strange unfamiliar sounds. Kyle wasn't scared, but the sounds definitely weren't helping him relax either.  
He fell asleep at some point though because the next morning he was woken up by Guy's cursing. Kyle opened his eyes slowly, he was lying on his side and so the first thing he saw was Guy sitting up. It took Kyle an extra moment to realize that Guy was shirtless and that half of him was covered in blood. That woke Kyle up properly.

“What?” Kyle asked and pulled himself up on his knees. Guy's face was white but he was muttering and staying conscious by apparently spitting out every curse word he knew. Guy had a very impressive vocabulary of curses, not just in English but also from various other languages on earth as well as a few alien languages.

Kyle grabbed his bag and crawled over to Guy's side. He pulled out the pouch with the purple powder. Took a pinch of it and sprinkled it over Guy's wound, both on the front as well as the exit wound on the back of his shoulder. The blood bubbled and fizzed, and Kyle made a face. It looked disturbing. The blood turned black, but at least it stopped bleeding.

Kyle fished out one of the canteens and made Guy drink some water. He put a hand on Guy's shoulder and waited until the man looked at him.

“If that's how it's going to be every morning,” Guy started but didn't finish the sentence. Kyle frowned.

“I suspect it might be,” Kyle said. Guy sighed. He glanced down at the wound, and a second later a glowing green bandaged flickered into life.

“That way I won't have to see it later,” Guy muttered before he willed the top half of his uniform into existence again.

As Kyle started to calm down again his bladder started to insist on he pay some attention to it. He excused himself and walked in among the trees to relieve himself.

He wasn't gone long, and yet when he came back to their camp site both the tent and Guy were gone. Kyle spun around, but before he could start to worry he spotted a green thread on the ground. Raising an eyebrow Kyle picked it up and started following it. It turned off the path, and Kyle made sure the thread was still lying on the ground as he followed it. He walked a little bit further until he found Guy. He was standing not really in a clearing, but there was a wider gap between the trees, letting in enough sunlight to let a bush with berries grow. When Kyle found Guy he was busy stuffing his face with the red berries.He heard Kyle, and turned around, smiling wide at Kyle.

“Nice idea,” Kyle said and pulled the string, making the ball of green yarn at Guy's feet twitch. Guy shrugged.

“'m not complete idiot,” Guy said, and then swallowed the berries. Kyle raised an eyebrow and nodded towards the bush.

“And that?”

“I asked the ring,” Guy said. “I also learn from my mistakes. Don't want a repeat of what happened on Skarran”

Kyle shivered. They really didn't need a repeat of that.

He joined Guy by the bush and plucked one of the berries, it reminded him of a blueberry in that it was small and round, but it was pink.

“Tastes a little bit like raspberries,” Guy said. Kyle put it in his mouth and Guy was right, it did taste a little bit like a raspberry.

They stayed there for a while, just eating berries and enjoying what little sunlight was coming down on them. They also gathered a lot of the berries in a large container Kyle made and once it was full he put it in the bag and they started walking again.

Around midday that day they climbed a hill, but even at the top of it, they still couldn't see anything but trees and the leaves above their heads. They stopped to catch their breath at the top of the hill, and while drinking some water Kyle spotted a bird not too far from them. It was a bright blue color, the same size as a sparrow but with the tail of a peacock. It didn't seem too afraid of either Kyle or Guy and was just standing in the middle of the path. Kyle's fingers itched to sketch it. One of the things about traveling to alien worlds was the unlimited fodder for his imagination. He had drawn so many alien landscapes at this point, he wasn't even sure which ones were just his imagination or something he had actually seen.

This day they didn't walk in silence, instead they traded stories with each other. Even the ones they'd already told, which were a lot more than the ones they hadn't already told each other. They'd both turned it into a game where they would change little details in the stories to see if the other one could call them out on their lies. It was however unclear how one would actually win at the game, but it was a good way to pass the time. They'd done it often enough during long space journeys.

“Oh, come on you stole that from Die Hard, did you really think I'd miss that?” Kyle asked with a laugh. Guy, who was walking in the lead again, turned his head and looked over his shoulder with a wide happy grin. Kyle tripped over nothing, but managed to keep himself on his feet.

“Worth a shot. Also who are you to accuse me of ripping things off. You use things from obscure sci-fi shows thinking I haven't watched them.”

“He really was a delegate from the Hynerian empire. I don't know why you won't believe me about this,” Kyle insisted but the fact that he couldn't hold back a laugh kind of gave him away. He managed to collect himself and say: “At least I'm making it hard by not picking a hugely well known movie franchise.”

“Fine, fine. You wanna let me finish?” Guy asked.

“That depends, you gonna steal more from Die Hard?”

“I know other movies.”

“Well then by all means go ahead,” Kyle said with a laugh.

Kyle had always liked this about Guy. How easy it was for him to get Kyle out of his own head. To stop thinking and over-thinking things. The easy way the man could make him laugh, even now. He guessed that right now it was also a very good way for Guy to distract himself as well.

The distraction continued into the evening. When they stopped for the night Guy made a construct fire and a chair which he fell down in. Kyle eyed the fire, green flames never quite looked right, but Guy was good at it and the fire gave off heat and the construct wood still made the right crackling sounds.

“You don't remember what the woman said about not making fires?” Kyle asked.

“It's a fake fire,”Guy said flippantly. “No smoke, no smell. And I want a fire.” Guy had his arms crossed, but it kind of looked like he was cradling the left one a bit.

“Alright,” Kyle said not wanting to start a fight. Instead he made a chair of his own and sat down next to Guy. Kyle glanced at Guy and noticed there was a slight red flush on his face. Kyle was going to take that as a good sign, Guy had been so pale.

“I never went camping as a kid,” Guy said after a little while.

“I did,” Kyle said. He'd gone with a friend, and his friend's dad. It had been a pretty wet, cold and miserable experience. Nothing like this where they had the rings which made camping a lot easier. He'd also been to a few festivals as a teen, which had required tenting. Those times hadn't been miserable, about as little sleep though, but for different reasons.

They sat by the fire for a long while, talking and bullshitting.

“Do we really need a tent?” Guy asked when they both had started yawning every time they opened their mouths instead of saying anything.

“I mean, the leaves up there are pretty much blocking everything out, even if it does start to rain. Which I doubt, we probably wouldn't even be bothered by it.”

Kyle was about to argue that it wouldn't really be camping without a tent, but then thought about conserving power and he nodded. Instead they just transformed their chairs into mattresses and laid down.

Kyle didn't fall asleep until he could hear snoring coming from Guy. He didn't sleep for long though as he was woken up, he didn't know by what, but he could hear Guy as soon as he woke up. Kyle looked over at the other man who was thrashing wildly in his bed and whimpering. It took Kyle's brain another second to wake up before he realized that Guy was having a nightmare.

“Guy,” Kyle said. He reached out, their mattresses being right next to each other it was easy for Kyle to put a hand on Guy's arm. Guy stilled letting out another pained sound before he curled up into a ball. Knees pulled up to his chest and arms curled protective over his head with his back to Kyle he was gasping for breath. Kyle sat up and started rubbing his hand in soothing circles on Guy's back. The man had thrown off his sleeping bag and was only wearing the undershirt of his uniform, and it was soaked through with sweat.

“Guy, wake up,” Kyle said. “It's only a dream.”

Guy was trembling under Kyle's hand, but it soon stilled with a final shiver. Guy rolled over to face Kyle and he opened his eyes. His face was even more open than usual, he looked soft and vulnerable in a way Guy rarely if ever was, and there was pain in his eyes and it made Kyle's chest clench with the raw emotion he saw in his friend’s face.

“It was just a dream,” Kyle said, hoping he sounded calm, but he wasn't sure.

Guy let out a humorless laugh and shook his head.

“No it wasn't.”

Guy closed his eyes slowly, his face twisted into a grimace of pain and he put a hand on his wound. Kyle couldn't help thinking of all the things he had been told had happened in Guy's life. The things Guy himself had revealed, some of which Kyle suspected he might be the only one who knew, and the things others like John or Hal had told Kyle. There were also the things that had only been implied and never outright stated by anyone, neither Guy or the others. And he wondered what exactly Guy's dream had been about, and he felt sorry that there were so many possible explanations.

“You should go back to sleep,” Guy said to Kyle.

“You too,” Kyle said. Guy shook his head.

“No, I can't sleep. Not right now.” Guy sat up, knees against his chest and arms around them. The fire was blazing again. Kyle laid down and watched Guy, and just as he had almost fallen back asleep Guy whispered.

“It was my dad.”

Kyle wanted to reach out, wanted to at least try and do something for comfort, but he knew Guy wouldn't welcome it. Was probably hoping that Kyle was actually asleep. Kyle fell asleep knowing that the next morning they would both pretend that this had never happened.


	3. Chapter 3

Two more days passed in much the same way. The forest was unchanging, and the only thing changing seemed to be Guy. After the first two days of Guy being vaguely okay, only wincing a little now and then. He had started to grumble and complain quite a bit about the pain. Guy was never one to suffer in silence, and Kyle wasn't going to tell him to stop. In fact Kyle suspected that if Guy stopped that would be more worrying. Guy had taken possession of the jar with the painkiller powder that morning, according to Guy it helped a little. The wound still bled quite a lot in the mornings, and Kyle had told his ring to wake him up first every morning, so that Guy wouldn't lose too much blood. The worry over Guy had become a niggling ache in Kyle's stomach which wasn't going away, and walking through this forest wasn't doing anything to distract him, it was going on forever and never changing. That was until the path they were walking on stopped.

“Huh,” Kyle said, surprised. Ahead of them was a structure covered in the same bushes that grew all over the forest floor. The structure turned out to be a building, an old abandoned building which the bushes had grown to completely cover. Several trees rose up where the roof should have been. The building wasn't very large, nothing more than a single story house. Kyle used a construct to pry the door open a little bit, he tried to look inside. Mushrooms giving off a green and purple glow didn't do much to illuminate the place so Kyle used the ring to shed some light as well. The building only had one room, this too had bushes covering every single surface, but Kyle could make out an old table and a few chairs.

“Come look at this,” Guy called out. Kyle left the building alone and walked over to Guy who had used a small construct bulldozer to push away some of the bushes revealing a patch of-

“Cobblestones?” Kyle said confused. Guy nodded. He pointed ahead the same direction they would have been walking if the path had continued.

“It continues that way.”

“Well, the path ended, we might as well go that way then,” Kyle said.

They continued walking and soon were passing more abandoned and ruined buildings. Most of them in worse state than the first they had come across. Some were not even buildings anymore but just piles covered in bushes. Every now and again the cobblestone street splintered off in streets going either east or west, but Kyle and Guy continued forward. Trees had grown up and broken through the cobblestone street in several places, it was also covered in bushes. The whole place was eerily quiet.

Kyle was feeling a bit creeped out.

The street soon ended. Several of the ruined houses were placed together forming a single wall. These were still standing, albeit covered in bushes and once again had trees growing through them.

“We could just go through them I suppose,” Guy said, his voice surprisingly low.

“What?” Kyle asked, matching his tone of voice.

“I mean, use the rings, break in here and out again on the other side. Or we can see if we can walk around it.”

The cobblestone street seemed to go on in either direction.

“Let me guess, you are in favor of going through it?” Kyle asked. Guy tilted his head down, looking up at Kyle through his eyelashes and smiled at him.

“You know me so well,” he said. Holding eye contact with Kyle for a second before turning away.

Guy made an elaborate battering ram construct.

“Does that have Hal's face at the front?” Kyle asked.

“No,” Guy answered a little too quickly. Kyle raised an eyebrow. Guy ignored him and set to work. The battering ram – which did have Hal's face at the front – crashed into the back of the building and leaving quite a sizeable hole in its wake.

“See that thick head of his can have some use every now and again,” Guy said.

“You are five years old,” Kyle said, but had to bite back a smile. He couldn't help feeling a bit glad that Guy was being a bit childish, it was better than him succumbing to the pain. Kyle walked ahead of Guy into the building.

There were bushes everywhere. The building had had two floors, but there were large gaping holes in the second floor above them, where either trees had gone through or bushes were hanging down. Kyle got a scratch on his cheek, before he realized he needed to watch out for the hanging bushes and their very sharp thorns.

There was dirt, and dust everywhere as well, but besides some large pieces of furniture - tables, chairs, cabinets fastened to the wall - there was nothing there. Kyle got the impression that whatever had happened for the people to abandon this place it hadn't been done in a rush. They had had time to move – to prepare.

They reached the front of the house, and Guy's battering ram started taking shape again, but Kyle held up a hand stopping him.

“How about we try the door instead?” Kyle asked. Guy pouted and the not completely unprecedented thought that Guy could be kind of adorable popped into Kyle's mind. Kyle gave himself a mental head shake and reached for the door handle instead. Kyle had to use quite a bit of force to open the door, throwing both his shoulder and hip against it, and to his annoyance he was joined by a construct of Guy from back in his Warrior days which poked at the door with one finger. Once the door was open Kyle turned to Guy and gave him a look. Guy just smiled innocently, or what Guy thought was an innocent smile. Warrior Guy flickered out of existence.

They left the house and came out into a small square, which wasn't very square and more of a circle, with houses all around them. Kyle spun around, this reminded him a lot of the square back in town. From this side it was easier to spot where the streets on the other side of the wall of houses connected with the square.

“This is- was a town,” Kyle said. He looked at a couple of benches next to one of the many trees that had grown in the square, the benches just like everything else had bushes growing all over them.

“What the hell is this place?” Guy asked.

They started walking across the tree infested square, but had only reached the middle of it when Kyle thought he heard something.

“Did you just hear something growling?” Kyle asked.

“No, what are you talking ab-” he was interrupted by a growling sound, much louder and closer this time. “Oh, that can't be good,” Guy said.

Kyle took another step forward, he heard rustling up in the trees around them, and coming closer.

“We shoul-” Kyle started. He was going to say that they should get out of there – Guy would fight an army missing all his limbs, he would be the real life version of the monty python's black knight. It was up to Kyle to be the responsible one and make sure Guy didn't end up with more injuries, or worse - but Kyle was interrupted by a loud howl, which was answered by more howls.

Kyle had his back to Guy, but spun around when he heard Guy exclaim:

“What the fuck?”

Guy was looking to his right and so Kyle followed his line of sight. Sliding down from the tree was a large ape. Except it didn't have a monkey's face. It's snout was longer and it had a much larger mouth with what looked like sharp teeth, and it had large pointed ears. It looked disturbingly more like an ape with a wolf's head. It had long grey-brown fur all over and it landed on the ground on it's hind legs, its head would easily be at the same height as Kyle's chest. From another tree came another wolf-ape and it landed on all fours, standing just like an ape. They growled and chittered, sounding very angry. From the trees all around them came more of the creatures until ten of them surrounded Guy and Kyle.

“Well, at least these gave us some warning and lined up for us before attacking,” Guy said and grinned. Kyle wanted to sigh.

“Let's at least try to avoid any injuries.” Kyle said. He didn't want to find out that these were some kind of were-ape creatures and that their bite would infect Guy and turn him into one of them.

“Hey, don't worry. How hard can it be to beat these freaks of nature?” Guy said, sounding far too laid back about their current situation. Kyle reminded himself that if he had been here with Hal it would have been no different. John would have been calm, but at least he took any threats seriously. Which Guy did not.

“Are you making faces at them?” Kyle asked and Guy instantly stopped sticking out his tongue at the wolf-apes.

“No.”

“What if they were friendly and you just offended them?” Kyle asked. At that point one of the creatures launched itself with a snarl towards Guy, it's mouth wide open. Kyle made a construct hand and pushed it away.

“Hey! That one was mine,” Guy complained. Kyle sighed and rolled his eyes. The wolf-apes screamed at them, and then all of them attacked.

They were surrounded, but Kyle stood with his back against Guy's, and so they couldn't be attacked from behind. Kyle made a massive robot wolf construct. He made it jump straight at the first wolf-ape that came jumping at Kyle. The waist high, and much heavier wolf brought the ape creature down to the ground with a loud thud, and the creature whimpered underneath the robot wolf's heavy paws. A large gun came out of the robot's back, that was why Kyle had made it a robot and not a wolf, so that it also could have a gun.

The robot fired at the monkeys and hit one of them, it screamed and fell to the ground. The remaining three started chittering even more loudly. Kyle was confused why they sounded more like monkeys than wolves considering their head, but he didn't have time to ponder that further. The apes having seen one of their own gunned down learned that the robot wolf could shoot them, and so they started making sure they weren't in the line of fire. They were clearly smart and a lot faster than Kyle's bulky construct wolf.

Behind him he could hear the wolf-apes Guy was fighting.

“You doing okay?” Kyle shouted.

“I'm fine,” came Guy's response. He sounded strained.

In front of Kyle two ape creatures had managed to get onto the wolf's back and were managing to pry open the armor on the robot, pulling out the innards of it. Kyle frowned and the construct disappeared. The wolf-apes fell to the ground, looking properly confused for a second before they both turned to face Kyle again. They got up on all four and started running towards him. Kyle let a construct of a unicorn show up in front of him. The wolf-apes stopped in their tracks, they screamed and started running in the other direction. Kyle sent the unicorn chasing after them.

Kyle saw something moving in the corner of his eye and he remembered there was one more wolf-ape he had forgotten about. It was running towards them from the side. Kyle felt Guy turn to face it, but Kyle moved faster. Just as the ape jumped towards Guy, Kyle jumped in front of Guy. He was hit by the creature, it's arm in Kyle's face, and since Kyle had had his mouth open he got a mouthful of fur. He hit the ground hard on his side with the heavy creature on top of him. It scrambled to get up when a large boot kicked it in the side. The wolf-ape made distressed noises, and was kicked off of Kyle who pointed his ring towards it, sending a beam which knocked the wolf-ape into a tree.

“What the hell was that?” Guy shouted and grabbed Kyle pulling him to his feet.

“I uh-” Kyle trailed off. He saved Guy, so why did he look so angry. Kyle was a little unsteady on his feet when Guy let go of him.

“I don't need you saving me,” Guy said. Ah, so that was why he was angry. “I don't need anyone saving me!”

“Guy,” Kyle tried but Guy wasn't listening. He was waving his hands about, and that had to hurt his shoulder. Since Guy didn't wince Kyle did it for him.  
“I know how to take care of myself!”

Guy poked Kyle in the chest with his ring finger, his face flushed.

“I've got this ring and I know how to use it. Hell I don't even need it to defend myself. I don't need any help!”

Kyle could see blood start to seep through at Guy's shoulder. It hadn't even gone a whole day this time.

“Guy,” Kyle said trying to bring his attention to it, but Guy wasn't listening.

“I have made it through life taking care of myself. I have never needed any help,” Guy said, his voice choked with emotion. Kyle felt his own chest constricting. “I have survived everything life has thrown at me.”

“A pathethic shoulder wound ain't gonna take me down. And it certainly don't make me weak.”

Guy poked Kyle in the chest again, this time harder. He turned around and stalked off. Kyle stood for a moment and watched him go, before he started following him at a distance. He didn't want to lose Guy, and he meant that in every way.

Once they reached the other end of the square which wasn't far away. Guy stopped and Kyle caught up with him.

“Guy,” Kyle said. He hesitated, licking his lips. “I know you can take care of yourself. And no one would ever call you weak.”

Guy wasn't looking at him. Was just standing with his back to Kyle.

“I just,” Kyle hesitated again, and put a tentative hand on Guy's right shoulder. Encouraged when Guy didn't immediately shrug it off or say anything Kyle kept talking. “I can't help it. I have an overprotective streak a mile wide and I just can't shut it off when it comes to people I care about.”

“And,” he hesitated again. “It's okay to ask for help sometimes. No one is going to judge you for it.”

That got a reaction from Guy who spun around to face Kyle.

“And who,” he started waving his hands about again, and winced and gasped letting his arms drop to his sides. Guy's tendency to talk with his whole body whenever he was upset, angry or excited, had become a bit of a problem. “Who- Who am I going to ask for help if you go and get yourself killed?”

“Oh,” Kyle said. His hand dropping from Guy's shoulder. “I didn't think-”

“No, you didn't.”

“I'm sorry,” Kyle said.

“Yeah, I know. But all I'm asking is that you treat me like normal and-” Guy looked down at his shoes. “And that you don't get yourself killed here.”

“I'll try,” Kyle said and tried to smile. Guy was still not looking at Kyle, instead he was looking at the houses they had in front of them.

“Let's keep going,” Guy said.

“Your, um, your wound is bleeding again,” Kyle pointed out. Because the blood stain on Guy's uniform was growing. Guy glanced down, exhaled heavily and cursed.

“We should find that unicorn and punch it,” Guy said.

“Yes, yes, but not now,” Kyle said rummaging through his bag coming up with the right pouch. Guy let the top half of his costume disappear. Kyle put a hand on Guy's opposite shoulder and felt him shiver.

“Hurry up, 's cold,” Guy mumbled. Kyle nodded, even though he himself didn't think it was very cold in the air. He leaned in close and sprinkled the powder on the wound again. Once done he stepped back and Guy remade his uniform without the blood stain.

They found the street that lead away from the square and continued south, leaving the town which looked much the same as it had on the other side. Except once they had left all the ruined buildings behind the trees looked even older, and they grew even more closely together. The path they found was even narrower than the first one, it zig-zagged right next to the tree trunks, never going in a straight line for long. It also disappeared a lot more underneath the bushes.

After walking in silence for a while Kyle said:

“You know. It's probably just as well we decided not to tell anyone about this particular adventure.”

“Huh?” Guy asked.

“Well, no one is going to believe us when we say we fought apes with wolf heads. That's just ridiculous.”

“Heh.”

Kyle smiled, feeling satisfied that Guy had been distracted from their argument.


	4. Chapter 4

“You changed that,” Kyle exclaimed.

“Huh?” Guy asked, poking at the logs under the green fire, green sparks shooting up from it. The thing with Guy Gardner was that things often went back to the normal after a small fight with him. Kyle and Guy only ever had small arguments, they'd never have a big falling out. So instead of Guy being grumpy and angry for a prolonged time, as soon as they made camp that evening they sat down and were back to their usual camaraderie, telling stories again.

“All the other times you've told that story the person you were kissing was a woman,” Kyle said. Wondering why Guy had thought Kyle wouldn't have picked up on that. Guy looked at the fire with a frown, but then looked up and gave Kyle a half smile.

“Ah, yes, guess I couldn't slip that by you,” he said. He leaned back in his chair and cradled his arm a bit. Kyle suspected his shoulder had to be sore after the day's events. Both Kyle and Guy started yawning soon after, and they went to bed early.

Kyle was woken by Guy screaming Kyle's name. Kyle blinked himself awake, temporarily confused as to what was going on, but then he heard it again from the mattress next to him. Guy screaming “Kyle” in a voice filled with anguish and desperation, and it slashed through Kyle's chest like a knife. Guy was tossing and twisting in bed so wildly that he fell out of it. Kyle scrambled across his own and Guy's bed, his uniform appearing automatically without Kyle thinking too much about it. He dropped down on the ground next to Guy who was still flailing around and wordlessly shouting. Kyle caught hold of the still struggling Guy. He tried to escape Kyle's grip, but Kyle held him tight and managed to pull Guy up into a seated position, and leaned him against a tree. Guy had gone from shouting to whimpering, and now that he was sitting and Kyle could look him in the face he thought he could see tears in the corners of Guy's tightly shut eyes.

“Guy, Guy,” Kyle repeated. He was kneeling in front of Guy, holding onto Guy's arms. His face close to Guy's. Talking in a soothing tone of voice.

“Guy I'm right here,” Kyle said. Guys eyes blinked open, and he looked at Kyle confused. Kyle smiled.

“Hey,” Kyle said when Guy focused on him. Guy was panting a little.

“You,” Guy started. Kyle smiled again, still holding on to Guy's arms. The bare sweaty skin hot against Kyle's palms.

“I'm here. I'm right here not planning on going anywhere.” Kyle didn't have a hard time guessing what Guy's dream had been about this time. He wondered why all of Guy's dreams seemed to be about things that had actually happened. They'd all gone through nightmare-ish events, but Kyle still managed to have ordinary nightmares not about anything he'd seen or been through.

Guy took a shaky breath. Closing his eyes and tilting his head back. His breathing started to slow down - as was Kyle's. Holding a struggling Guy and try to calm him down wasn't easy. Soon Guy sighed and he opened his eyes again, looking at Kyle.

“S'rry I woke you,” Guy said. Kyle smiled again.

“Dont worry about it.”

They stayed like that for a moment. Guy just looking at Kyle's face, like he was trying to convince himself of something, and Kyle just let him.

“Why are you still wearing the mask?” Guy asked suddenly. “It's only the two of us here.”

It was a habit, Kyle thought. He always wore the mask with the uniform, and he didn't think about whether or not it was really needed. He hadn't even really thought about why he let the uniform appear in the first place when he woke up. Guy did have a point though, it was completely pointless to wear it here where it was just him and Guy. He let the mask disappear.

“There you are,”Guy said. He lifted his right hand and started tracing a finger softly across Kyles face, and it took Kyle a moment to realize that Guy was tracing the outline of one of Kyle's earliest masks, the one everyone insisted on referring to as the “crab-mask”. Guy finished the mask and he just left his fingers touching Kyle's cheek lightly and the wild thought “he's going to kiss me” popped into Kyle's mind. But Guy smiled and closed his eyes, letting his hand drop. The heavy feeling of disappointment came as a surprise to Kyle.

“I'm cold,” Guy mumbled. Kyle only nodded and helped Guy back into his sleeping bag.

Kyle lay back down himself, and watched Guy close his eyes and how his breathing slowed down as he fell asleep. For Kyle sleep didn't come as easily. He continued to watch Guy and wondered about that feeling of disappointment. He'd never before thought about kissing Guy, but now it was in his head and he couldn't stop the idea from spinning around in his mind.

The next morning Kyle tried to put it out of his mind, with little success. He kept catching himself watching Guy. The way the man would lick his lips, leaving them looking wet and soft after drinking some water. He wondered what it would feel like to have Guy kiss him, would he be forceful and dominant, try and take charge? Would the kiss leave him breathless and overwhelmed? Or would it be awkward because they'd been friends for so long, and it would be a bit weird kissing your best friend whom you'd never thought about in any romantic way before?

“Kyle.”

Kyle was pulled out of his train of thought and realized Guy had been talking.

“Sorry, I wasn't listening,” Kyle said.

“I could tell,” Guy said with an amused look which turned curious. “What had you so distracted?”

“Nothing,” Kyle answered a little too fast. Guy didn't look convinced. “What were you saying?”

“Oh, was just wondering if you were ready to get going,” Guy said. “Oh, and if I had something on my face since you were staring.”

“No, no,” Kyle said. Guy raised an eyebrow.

“I mean, yes we're ready, and no nothing on your face. I just spaced out and you happened to be in my line of sight,” Kyle said. Which was close enough to the truth for Guy to find it believable. Guy shrugged.

Kyle got up on his feet and slung the shoulder bag across one shoulder.

“Ya know, if you're gonna have his bag maybe you should actually dress like him,” Guy said with a grin.

“Who? Indiana Jones?”

Guy nodded. Kyle smiled and in a flash had changed into normal brown pants, a linen shirt with most of the top buttons unbuttoned, leather jacket and a whip at his hip. He created the hat in his hands and put it on his head, with a small spin of it, showing off just for the sake of it. He grinned.

“Like this you mean?” Kyle asked. Guy nodded. “Who does that make you? Marion?” Kyle asked with a grin.

“Oh shut up,” Guy said and tried to get to his feet, but the movement jostled his shoulder and he winced, face twisting into a grimace.

“Here, let me help,” Kyle said and held out his hand.

“I can get up on my own damn feet,” Guy grumbled.

“Thought we talked about accepting help,” Kyle said patiently. Guy hesitated for another second before he grabbed Kyle's hand. A thrill went through Kyle's whole body starting at their clasped hands and going up through his arm. Kyle pulled Guy up to his feet and they were standing close together. Kyle's mind was running in circles and he couldn't figure out his own reactions, or that fluttering feeling in his chest.

“Ya gonna let go of my hand?” Guy asked looking down at their hands, awkwardly pressed in between their bodies. He raised his head slowly and looked straight into Kyle's eyes. Kyle fought a flush, let go of Guy's hand and took a step back.

“Um, yeah let's go,” Kyle said, and started to take a few steps away from Guy.

“You gonna take the lead today too?” Guy asked. 

Kyle meant to say _“sure”_ , but what came out instead was:

“You just wanna stare at my ass all day.” Because all of a sudden Kyle's brain to mouth filter was malfunctioning, and Kyle couldn't believe he was actually flirting with his best friend.

Kyle started walking instead, turning his back to Guy.

“If I wanted to oogle your ass I wouldn't have asked you to change out of your uniform, now would I?” Guy said. 

Instead of any of the other things Kyle expected him to say. Outright denial had been at the top of the list of expected responses. Kyle stumbled a little, but he thought he managed to hide it more or less. He was glad he had his back to Guy though, because there was no hiding the blush, his cheeks felt like they were burning.

Was Guy flirting back? No, that couldn't be right. Surely the man was joking. Kyle was confused, and this was so not the right time for this. They were in the middle of a forest, trying to find something that might not exist, in order to save Guy from a lethal wound. Kyle really did not have time to start having these confusing thoughts and feelings about Guy. Before Kyle had to come up with something to say Guy opened his mouth again.

“Hey, look at that.”

Kyle turned his head and looked to where Guy was pointing. In among the trees he noticed a squirrel like creature carrying a golden acorn.

“There must be one of those oaks nearby,” Guy said, suddenly sounding excited. “Let's go find it, and when a unicorn shows up we can kick its ass.”

Kyle really wanted to punch something to distract himself from his own thoughts, but he also realized that it would be a waste of time.

“Not now. Once we're done we can go fight as many unicorns as you want,” Kyle said. Guy looked a little bit put out at first, glaring at the alien squirrel, but then he turned his head to Kyle again and his expression turned thoughtful.

“You promise?”

“I promise, Kyle said. Guy beamed at him. Inside his head Kyle told himself in his sternest voice _“he is not cute”_ but he didn't even believe himself.

They carried on walking and Kyle did his best to push all other thoughts from his mind. Just like they didn't have time to go punch a unicorn, Kyle didn't have time to question his changing feelings for Guy. It was difficult though, it was as if a door in Kyle's mind had suddenly been opened. A door Kyle hadn't even been aware of before, but now it was all he could think of. In his mind he kept repeating the moment during the night, but changing it so that Guy had in fact kissed him – and so far he had about two different versions of the kiss, one unlikely where Guy kissed him all tender and shy. The other one where Guy was forceful and demanding, biting at Kyle's lip and moaning into Kyle's mouth. He definitely had to try and push that one out of his mind because just thinking about it had heat pooling down low in his belly.

“Hey Kyle,” Guy said after a little while, making Kyle flinch a little bit, and he was glad Guy couldn't see his face because he blushed even though he knew Guy couldn't possibly know what Kyle had been thinking he felt a little bit guilty fantasising about kissing his best friend.

“Yeah?” Kyle asked.

“You remember the bar we went to when we got to this planet?” Guy asked.

“Yeah, what about it?” Kyle asked. Glad for the distraction.

“It had a unicorn horn hanging from the sign. Do you think the owner actually went out into this forest and killed a unicorn to steal it's horn?”

“I doubt it,” Kyle said. The first time he saw it he had assumed it had been a fake made to look like a unicorn horn, and he said as much to Guy.

“I suppose. But what if?” Guy asked.

“Seems like an unnecessary risk just to get a horn he could put on his sign.”

“Yeah, maybe you're right,” Guy said. “He probably would have displayed the whole dead unicorn if he had killed one. He would have more to brag about.”

Guy was silent for a moment and then said.

“Or maybe they lose their horns.”

“What?” Kyle asked confused.

“Yeah, like moose, or is it deer? Anyway, whatever animal it is that drop their antlers in the winter. Maybe unicorns shed their horns at a certain time of year too? And he just picked up one of the discarded horns.”

“Why would they do that?”

“I don't know,” Guy said. Kyle didn't need to see him to know Guy shrugged, he could hear the low but pained gasp.

“This is kind of a weird conversation,” Kyle said instead.

“Weirder than that discussion about the sexual habits of the inhabitants of PH65fx?” Guy asked. Kyle was impressed Guy remembered the planet's designation, Guy usually called it the _Christmas lights planet_ – and Kyle too usually referred to it that way. The inhabitants of PH65fx were little fuzzy balls of different colored lights, and it hadn't so much been a discussion as it had been Guy musing out loud to Kyle and the two rookies from that sector while they were flying back to Oa.

“Why do I even li-” Kyle started but caught himself before the 'like' slipped out of his mouth, “put up with you?” He asked.

“My charming personality and stunning good looks?” Guy suggested.

“Sure,” Kyle said, going for sarcastic but probably missing the mark. He was distracted by the thought in his mind “why did he like Guy?” and he was more surprised at his complete lack of surprise over how easy it was for him to answer that. Kyle liked Guy, he always had if he was honest with himself. To everyone else it always seemed to be a strange friendship that grew between them, but the fact that they shared the same sense of humor helped, that and a couple of common interests.

They brought out the best in each other, but more importantly it was so easy to be around Guy. There was no posturing, no pretending – they were just them. Yeah, sure that meant sometimes having to put up with Guy when he was being an asshole, but it also meant that Guy was always completely frank and honest with Kyle whenever Kyle needed his opinion on something – including when Kyle hadn't actually asked for Guy's opinion.

Kyle liked spending time with Guy, liked being around the man because of the easy way he could cheer Kyle up, how he was always there for Kyle when he needed him. They got along, and thinking about it, Kyle was more surprised at how long it had taken him to reach the conclusion that he liked Guy. Usually Kyle fell fast and hard and was aware of it the whole time, but this time it had happened without him noticing it – and he had no idea what he was supposed to do about it.

It was about midday - though it was still hard to tell the passage of time when they couldn't see the sun and Kyle had to rely on the ring to keep track for him. Both days and nights on this planet were a lot shorter than they were used to – when he noticed that Guy had started to lag behind. Kyle wasn't sure how long he had been walking a little bit further ahead of Guy, having been so lost in his own thoughts.

Kyle stopped and waited for Guy to catch up, he was panting a little bit, face pale and he was cradling his arm close to his chest. Kyle frowned.

“Are you okay?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah sure,” Guy said, it was such a terrible lie and Kyle arched an eyebrow. Guy sighed.

“Pain's getting' worse,” Guy said.

“The painkiller?”

“Only taking the edge away. It used to be just a dull ache but there's these spikes of pain now and they are getting more frequent.” He shook his head.

“I'll be fine though.”

“Guy,” Kyle started, and Guy frowned harder.

“Don't,” Guy said. Kyle ignored his protest.

“I could send you to Oa,” Kyle said. Guy looked away from him. Jaw clenched and anger and frustration lining his face. “Let Soranik take care of you. Who knows, maybe she will figure something out after all. I can carry on with this.”

“No,” Guy protested. “I am not leaving.”

“You are so stubborn,” Kyle said with a sigh. Guy smiled, but it was a weak one.

“My stubbornness will save me yet again,” he said and pushed his way past Kyle and started walking again.

“And how many situations could you have avoided if you weren't so stubborn?” Kyle mumbled, low enough that Guy wouldn't hear him, before he started walking after the man. He supposed he could just send him away, make a construct rocket and send it straight to Oa, but he couldn't ignore his own selfishness, and he didn't want to be separated from Guy.

He easily caught up with Guy who moved a lot slower than usual. The topic of conversation had distracted Kyle from his earlier thoughts however, and it took him a while longer before his mind returned to his changing feelings about Guy, no matter how hard it was to push those thoughts away. It was hard however when all around him was boring unchanging forest that did nothing to distract Kyle, and right in front of him was Guy's ass, which Kyle had on one or two occasions in the past looked at quite appreciatively, after all he was a bisexual man and Guy Gardner did have a nice ass.

That night Kyle fell asleep to thoughts of Guy. Theoretically he knew that this was neither the time nor place for this revelation. That he should try and push it aside, because there were more pressing matters, but it was difficult.

It was still the middle of the night when Kyle woke up because he was struggling to breathe. It was pitch black in the forest and he couldn't see anything, but something really heavy was lying across his chest, in fact his entire torso, and he had trouble moving as well as breathing.

He was lying on his back, one hand at his side the other, his ring hand, pressed against his stomach, he felt dry, cold scales sliding minutely against the top of his hand. Kyle tried squirming to get free, but it just seemed to get heavier and he heard a hiss from somewhere to his left. Guy was on Kyle's right, so that had to mean whatever it was – a snake, his brain helpfully told him. It was probably a snake – didn't have its head anywhere near Guy.

Kyle asked his ring to fire a green flame up at the snake. Kyle heard another angry hiss and the snake slid to the side away from the ring and ended up across Kyle's legs. Kyle sat up, finally able to take a deep breath. There was a rustling from Kyle's left, and then impossibly fast the snake slithered behind Kyle's back, and then across Kyle's front again. Effectively pinning Kyle's arms to his sides, and when he tried to move them, the coil tightened around his chest.

“Guy!” Kyle managed to shout, hoping he'd wake him up.

The snake hissed and squeezed tighter around Kyle and he could feel all his air leaving his lungs. A green light shot up from Kyle's right, and a glowing green orb started hovering in the air above them.

“Kyle?” Guy asked.

However all Kyle could focus on was the snake which rose up in front of Kyle. It was a huge creature with dark green and dark red scales. The head was wide and it reminded Kyle of a cobra. It's mouth was open and Kyle could see its tongue as well as the more pressing concern – its two long, sharp looking fangs. Kyle felt a stab of panic shoot through him.

“Kyle!” Guy shouted. The snake's head swiveled round towards Guy, and Kyle looked over as well. Guy was struggling to sit up, wincing in pain at what the movement was doing to his wound. The snake's tongue danced in the air and it hissed again. The coil tightened around Kyle's chest and he was gasping for air.

He started seeing spots in front of his eyes. His lips and mouth was dry, and it felt like the world was spinning. He focused all of his will into the ring and behind the snake a green construct started taking shape.

The construct roared and the snake turned around to look at it.

“A bear?” Guy asked incredulous. Kyle smiled and then started to lose consciousness, but before everything went black he thought “fire” at the bear, and with a psscheew the construct bear fired green laser beams from its eyes at the snake.

He came back to with a gasp. The scene in front of him having barely changed, and so he made the quick assessment that he couldn't have been out for long. The snake had loosened its grip on Kyle to attack the bear. The bear however had flickered out of existence when Kyle passed out, but in the meantime Guy had moved to stand in front of Kyle holding a green construct sword. A sword he was now swinging at the loosened coil still around Kyle's waist.

Kyle had fallen backwards when he passed out, but he was trying to get himself sitting again when he noticed the snake behind Guy.

“Guy behind you!” Kyle managed to shout even though he was still trying to catch his breath. The snake's head shot towards Guy who stepped aside. He lifted the sword above his head, his arm muscles tensed and ready, bathed in the green glow from above. Guy swung the sword in an arc through the air, hitting the snake's neck right behind its head. The blade cleave through the snake, shearing off the head completely. Dark blood sprayed both Guy and Kyle. It fell to the ground lifeless.

The sword in Guy's hand flickered out of existence. He was breathing heavily when he crouched down in front of Kyle. His left arm cradled against his chest he put his right hand on Kyle's shoulder. He had taken most of the blood, and there was blood spatter all over his face, and larger stains all over his chest.

“Are you alright?” Guy asked. The way he looked and sounded so concerned left Kyle speechless for a second. He blamed it on the fact that he was still trying to get his breathing under control, and Guy's hand on Kyle's shoulder and that intense look in his eyes were definitely not reason enough to make the world spin.

“Y- yeah,” Kyle answered. Guy breathed out and a grin replaced his concerned expression.

“I can still save your ass, partner,” Guy said. And clapped Kyle on the shoulder.

“I had it under control,” Kyle said, but he grinned.

“Oh yes of course,” Guy said. Helping Kyle get to his feet, not letting go of Kyle's arm once they were standing chest to chest. They were close enough that Kyle could count the freckles on Guy's nose if he wasn't staring into Guy's eyes. “That bear shooting lasers out of it's eyes was inspired,” Guy said. His voice low and Kyle's eyes flicked down to Guy's lips.

“Oh yeah?” Kyle said, his voice low to match Guy's and he had to force himself to look back into Guy's eyes. Meeting a challenge there but having no clue what exactly the challenge was.

“I think-” Guy started, but was interrupted when his eyes widened and he let out a pained whimper. His face twisted into a look of pain, he let go of Kyle and placed his hand over the wound before doubling over.

“Oh hell,” Guy mumbled, and Kyle had barely enough time to catch him as Guy passed out.


	5. Chapter 5

Kyle made a construct to remove the dead snake from his bed, so that he could let Guy lie down on the mattress. Another construct lighting their camp site, since Guy's had winked out of existence. He watched Guy's face, he was pale and sweaty, but Kyle put fingers against Guy's neck and he could feel Guy's pulse still beating, Guy's chest also rose and fell minutely. Kyle let out a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, feeling a strong sense of relief flooding him, but it only lasted for a moment. When he opened his eyes again he noticed that Guy's wound had started bleeding.

He grabbed the pouch and sprinkled some more powder on the wound. They should probably start being on the lookout for more of the flowers, because Kyle wasn't sure how much longer the powder would last. It was while Kyle took care of Guy's wound that Guy woke with a gasp of pain, and his eyes blinked open. He looked up at Kyle, his expression open and vulnerable - it felt like something twisted in Kyle's chest seeing it.

“Wha' happen',” Guy mumbled and then licked his lips with a frown. “Thirsty,” he said. Kyle nodded and immediately reached for one of the canteens.

“You fainted,” Kyle said while he started to fill a construct mug with water.

“That doesn't sound like something I'd do,” Guy protested. Still lying down. Kyle started looking for the pain medication, and for a moment couldn't find it at all, but after a few seconds of frantic searching he located it and could mix a little of it with the water.

Kyle returned to Guy's side with the cup and helped Guy sit up so that he could drink.

“Well, you did,” Kyle said. While Guy drank deeply from the mug.

“You feeling any better?” Kyle asked when Guy finished the water. Guy shook his head.

“Nah, but what else can you do.” He looked at Kyle who was sitting next to him, one arm behind Guy's back to keep him steady. Kyle bit his bottom lip and looked away. He didn't know what to say to that.

They sat in silence for a while. Kyle even closed his eyes, feeling a little bit relaxed again just sitting there with Guy. But in the back of his head he was feeling stressed as well, he wanted to be on their way soon. He didn't want to stay in this spot, he wanted to continue moving. He wasn't sure he believed there would be more snakes attacking them, but he didn't want to take the risk by staying. However if Guy couldn't move then he didn't want to rush him.

“I think we should keep moving, but if you-” Kyle started.

“I don't need to be coddled with is what I need,” Guy protested. Kyle looked back at him. He was staring out into the dark forest. “Let's go,” Guy said.

Kyle hesitated but when Guy started moving restlessly Kyle got up to his feet and helped Guy up as well. He staggered a bit, but Kyle helped steady him with a hand on Guy's upper right arm.

“'m fine,” Guy said, Kyle didn't believe him but he didn't say anything. Instead he started to gather their things, which only took him a minute, before they started to walk. Guy took the lead, and Kyle's glowing green orb floated along in the air before them.

When Kyle's ring told him that it was dawn he insisted they rest for a bit. Guy didn't even protest, just made a mattress and with a content little sigh sank down on it, falling asleep almost immediately. Kyle tried sleeping too, but was too restless and gave up eventually settling instead for sitting in a chair and keeping watch.

He let Guy rest for an hour and a half before waking him, the man looked a little bit better at that point, and they could carry on walking.

After another couple of hours of walking in mostly silence they reached a short slope which wasn’t particularly steep as they walked down it. It only took a couple of minutes before the ground levelled out again and the trees around them seemed to have thicker trunks than the ones earlier, they also had to be taller because the foliage above them seemed to be at the same level as the trees where Kyle and Guy came from.

They carried on walking in silence, ahead of them Kyle thought he could see it getting a little bit lighter under the trees, he assumed he was imagining things but as they continued further on he was starting to actually believe it. He was just about to ask Guy what he thought when Guy with a shout disappeared.

“Guy!” Kyle exclaimed in surprise, his heart stopped for a second. He hurried forward, stopping just in time at the edge of a ditch. It was about ten feet deep and six feet wide. Unlike everywhere else in this forest, the sides and the flat bottom of the the ditch weren't covered in bushes. There was a thin trickle of a stream in the middle of the ditch. Guy was sitting at the bottom, hand over his wound but with the back of his head towards Kyle.

“You okay?” Kyle called down to Guy. Guy craned his head around and looked at him.

“Sure, just a few scratches and bruises,” Guy said. “I'll live.”

Kyle made it down into the ditch without falling into it and crouched down in front of Guy. Inspecting him, but Guy pushed at him.

“I'm fine, I'm fine. Stop being so overprotective,” he muttered.

“You wanna rest for a bit?” Kyle asked. Guy arched an eyebrow. “I'm not being protective-”

“Over.”

“I just figure we could rest for a bit. Maybe see if we can fill our canteens.”

“Its not much of a stream,” Guy pointed out. He was right. While the ditch itself was wide, the stream was no more than a feet, maybe a feet and a half, and very shallow.

“Worth a try,” Kyle said with a shrug.

“Alright,” Guy said with a sigh.

They sat down in two construct chairs on either side of the stream, facing each other. Above them the branches of the trees seemed to stretch out as far as possible, to form a cover of leaves, but here there were places one could look up and catch a glimpse of the sky. Kyle made another elaborate construct of a pump and water filtration, as well as a system for filling the canteens automatically from the pump. He closed his eyes and let the construct go to work.

“We could play fuck, marry, kill,” Guy suggested after a few seconds of silence.

Kyle opened an eye and glanced over at Guy who looked as if he was being serious.

“We are not playing fuck, marry, kill,” Kyle protested, and opened both eyes instead.

“Why not?” Guy asked, and honest to god pouted. Kyle hated Guy's pout, it had far too much power over Kyle.

“Because we always end up running out of actresses and start suggesting other heroes. And it's really awkward for me whenever I meet them and have to look them in the eyes while remembering all the nasty stuff you've said you want to do with them.”

“Oh come on. I didn't know you were bi last time, there are so many more people to use now.”

Kyle didn't say anything about how even before Kyle was out to Guy, the other man hadn't hesitated to use other guys as well.

“Fine but only if you have to pick between guys as well,” Kyle said. Giving in mostly because he knew they bought could use with something else to think about.

“I don't know why you think I'd have a problem with that,” Guy said.

Kyle couldn't quite help his contemplative look at Guy after that comment, but he wasn't sure if he should make a comment back, so instead he just shook his head.

“Alright,” Kyle said and thought for a second. “Fuck, marry, kill... Booster-”

“Booster?” Guy interrupted. “You're giving me Booster.”

“You're the one who wanted to play,” Kyle said. “Booster, Ted and... J'onn”

“Seriously? J'onn?”

“I know you have no problem getting down with aliens Guy,” Kyle said.

“It's not the alien part I have a problem with. Its J'onn. But fine. Kill J'onn. Fuck Booster and marry Ted. For his money. It is back when he had money right?”

“Nope,” Kyle said, because he was curious what Guy would answer. Guy thought for a moment and then shrugged.

“Nah, I'd still fuck Booster rather than marry him.”

“Besides that way you'll find out why Ted is cheating on you with Booster,” Kyle said.

“You know about them?” Guy asked sounding genuinely surprised and Kyle shot him a look.

“Seriously Guy. Everyone knows about them. It's the worst kept secret in the community.”

“Alright. Alright. Your turn to choose. Wally-”

Kyle groaned and hid his face in his hands.

“Connor and Dick?”

“Not okay,” Kyle said. This was why he shouldn't play this game with Guy – ever. “I'm friends with them. Or well, I'm not that close to Dick, but still! I know him!”

Guy grinned at him. Kyle glared but that didn't change Guy's expression, so he sighed.

“Fine,” he muttered. He refused to think too much about this or it'd be the only thing he could think of the next time he saw any of them. “Marry Connor, fuck Dick and-” he sighed again. “Kill Wally.”

“You wanna elaborate on how you came to that conclusion?” Guy asked.

“No. And don't you dare tell Wally about this!”

“I am so telling twinkletoes about this,” Guy said with a grin.

Kyle tried to reassure himself that Guy and Wally didn't really get along, so they probably wouldn't run into each other and if they did Guy hopefully wouldn't get the opportunity to tell Wally. Kyle still glared at him. Guy was still grinning. Kyle thought of punching that grin off his face. Another part was thinking about kissing that grin away. He ignored both impulses.

“Whatever, he'll probably prefer being killed than married to me,” Kyle said.

“Now you,” Kyle said. “Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.”

“Oh come on!” Guy protested.

Kyle just grinned at him.

“Kill Supes,” Guy said.

“I'm so surprised,” Kyle said making sure to sound as sarcastic as possible.

“Shut up,” Guy said. “Fuck Diana.” Guy leered. Kyle held up a hand in front of himself.

“I don't wanna hear it,” Kyle said. Guy shrugged.

“And marry Bats.”

“For the money?” Kyle asked with a smile.

“For the money,” Guy said. “Unlike some Bruce still has his money. I'm sure it'll work much better than with Ted.”

“I give it a day,” Kyle said with a laugh. Guy ignored Kyle's comment.

“Your turn again,” Guy said. “Hal, John or me.”

“You can't use yourself,” Kyle protested.

“Sure I can. Why not?”

“Because you'll only get offended and refuse to speak to me if I kill you,” Kyle said. Even though he had no intention of choosing to kill Guy.

“What?” Guy exclaimed in a scandalized voice and an expression of shock. Kyle gave him an “I told you so”-look.

“I am a hundred times more fuckable than either of those two,” Guy said. Waving his right arm around a bit. “Sure I'll grant you John is a reasonably good looking dude, but come on. No way is he better looking than me. And you can't tell me you'd either marry or fuck Hall.”

“You're the one with Hal issues,” Kyle said with a shrug, because even though he knew he shouldn't he never had been able to stop pushing Guy's “Hal issues”-button.

“Am not,” Guy protested. “Come on. Just admit that you'd fuck me,” Guy said.

Kyle sighed and shook his head. He had been about to do no such thing. If he was honest with himself, he'd have probably picked marry Guy. Kyle liked being around Guy. They got along. It was fun to be with Guy, and he liked the man, even with his many flaws. Even if he hadn't had these new feelings for Guy he'd have still picked marry Guy.

Meanwhile Guy kept talking.

“I'd fuck me,” Guy said. Kyle raised an eyebrow, and tried really hard not to imagine Guy kissing a another Guy Gardner – and definitely did not add himself into that mix.

“Really?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah, and marry John and kill Hal. Obviously.”

“And if you weren't allowed to kiss yourself in the scenario, because I know you're not that much of a narcissist.”

“What do you mean?” Guy asked.

“If it was Hal, John and me?” Kyle asked, before he could stop himself.

“Well, that one's obvious too,” Guy said. “I'd kill Hal. Fuck John and marry you.”

“Oh,” Kyle said. He hadn't really expected the thrill inside of him or the warm feeling in his chest at hearing that answer.

“Now you, since you didn't answer it,” Guy said.

“Fuck-” Hal's name was at the tip of Kyle's tongue. It would maybe be closer to the truth. He'd never really thought of John in any other way than a mentor, but Hal. Well, it was Hal. But at the same time, he figured one push of the Hal Jordan button would be enough for the day.

“John,” Kyle said, “kill Hal,” he paused for just a second. “And marry you I guess.”

Kyle hadn't expected the beaming happy smile he got from Guy. It only lasted for a second though, and yet made Kyle's heart skip. The smile turned into a more smug expression, which Kyle had expected.

Guy opened his mouth when Kyle heard something. A loud whooshing sound coming from their right. He got up on his feet and held up a hand to tell Guy to be silent.

“What is it?” Guy asked.

Further up the stream the foliage was a bit thicker and it was very shadowy, but Kyle could see something glittering and moving at some speed. A second later he realized that it was a wave of water rushing towards them. The wave reached the top of the ditch and filled it up completely, and it would hit them any moment.

“Move!” Kyle shouted to Guy. Kyle turned around and ran towards Guy and the other side of the ditch, jumping across the stream. He made a construct fist and scooped up their canteens before he flew out of the ditch, noting that Guy also took flight. They landed on the edge of the ditch at the same time as the water came rushing past, filling the ditch with water. They sat down, leaning against two trees.

“You know, Guy,” Kyle started.

“What?” Guy asked.

“I think this forest is actively trying to kill everyone that enters it.”

“Heh, I think you might be right.”

They were quiet for a moment, the water was already starting to recede and they watched it for a while before they started walking again. Climbing a hill, walking past identical trees as usual, hearing birds singing in the distance, and leaves crunching underneath their boots. A part of Kyle was starting to wonder if either of them would make it out of this forest. It had been days now, and this place seemed determined to try and kill them. He didn't voice any of those thoughts to Guy.

They were quiet as they made camp that evening, and they went to bed early.

Kyle didn't know how long he had been asleep when he woke up. He had told the ring to wake him when Guy's heart rate sped up, since that often meant Guy was having a nightmare. However even without the ring Kyle would have woken up this night. Guy was shouting, loud unintelligible nonsense. He was already standing on his feet when Kyle woke up, and Kyle had enough time to see Guy take off running into the forest.

“Guy!” Kyle shouted, but Guy was already off in the dark forest, not even following the path. Kyle cursed and scrambled to his feet. He formed his uniform as he ran and told the ring to track Guy. He also made a glowing green orb so that he at least could see where he was going.

“Where's he heading?” Kyle shouted to the ring. A helpful arrow pointing in the right direction showed up and the ring told him that Guy was heading in a north-easterly direction.

“Not even running the right way,” Kyle grumbled.

He was running as fast as he could, but Guy was still in the lead. Kyle thought he could hear him crashing through the forest ahead of him. Adrenaline was pumping in Kyle's body and through his head he saw all the ways Guy could get hurt rushing like this through a thick forest in the darkness. He could trip and break his bones, there were branches he could run into, or even run into a tree. They were also going to get hopelessly lost, and Kyle wasn't sure they would find their way back to the camp even if he caught up to Guy.

He jumped to the side to avoid running straight into a tree, and pushed himself to run even faster. He could clearly hear Guy now, he was no longer spouting nonsense but he was also making a lot of noise running through the undergrowth.

Kyle slipped on one of the bushes, stumbled and staggered, catching himself against a tree. The tree bark rough against his palm. He pushed himself away from the tree and carried on running. He was getting winded now, his lungs starting to burn. He didn't do running, and he certainly didn't do running in a pitch black forest only led by a glowing green orb than only illuminated enough in front of him that he could barely dodge the trees growing so close together.

Finally he spotted Guy though, the man did the mistake of running in between two trees growing very close together instead of taking the way around them. Guy made it past them, but Kyle pushed himself to run even faster. Despite his legs protesting, and his heavy panting. He ran around the trees.

“Guy!” He managed to shout, but Guy didn't notice, he kept running.

Kyle tried to run even faster, he had never before wished so badly for Wally to show up. He reached out, trying to grab Guy, when suddenly the ground underneath them fell away slightly.

“Shit!” Kyle exclaimed as he stumbled and fell forward.

He fell on his stomach, all the air punched out of him. He skidded forward a bit, but the bushes hindered most of his movement. The thorns on the bushes also scratched his hands and face before he remembered to turn on the protection field from the ring.

He lay there gasping for breath for a moment. Eyes tightly shut. His legs and lungs burned and he wanted to sleep for a week. His heart beat fast and adrenaline still rushing inside of him. Then he remembered Guy.

“Guy,” Kyle said. He scrambled up on his hands and knees. Sending the shining orb higher up to shed more light. He spotted Guy lying only a few feet in front and to the left of Kyle. He crawled over there. Making sure the protection was still up. He didn't want more scratches.

Kyle reached Guy who was just waking up with a pained groan. He was lying on his stomach and Kyle helped him turn over onto his back and then up into a seated position. Guy blinked a couple of times before he focused on Kyle.

“Kyle?” He asked, looking very confused, and he started glancing around himself.

“What the hell happened?” Kyle asked. Guy looked back at Kyle again.

“I was kind of hoping you could explain that,” Guy said. “I only remember going to bed and falling asleep. After that it's all a blur.”

“I guess you were dreaming,” Kyle said slowly. “Have you ever sleepwalked before?” Kyle asked. Guy shook his head and then made a grimace, putting his hand on his forehead.

“I think I might have hit my head.” He took his hand away, and in the green light they both could see the blood on Guy's fingers. Kyle leaned in closer and noticed the scratch on Guy's forehead.

“I think it might just be a scratch” Kyle said,

“Yeah? Well it hurts,” Guy said. Kyle made a construct band aid and placed it over the scratch. Adding Superman's logo on it, because he could. While Kyle did that Guy was looking around and saying:

“I think we're back almost where we found that stream,” Guy said. Kyle nodded when Guy looked back at Kyle.

“Yeah, I'd guess that too,” Kyle said. “Ring said you ran north-east, so if we head west now we should get back to the path and find our things again.”

“Sounds good,” Guy said. They got to their feet, but Guy let out a pained groan. Kyle looked at him, he was pale again and couldn't even hope to hide the obvious pain he was in. Kyle's chest twisted again with emotion, and he tried not to look like he was pitying Guy, because he wasn't, but he did feel for him.

“Maybe you should make a sling,” Kyle suggested.

“I don't need no-” Guy started, but interrupted himself. Jaw clenched and he closed his eyes.

“Guy,” Kyle said and started to reach out to him.

“Don't,” Guy said. Opening his eyes and there was the steely determination Kyle had seen so often in them. But Kyle still wanted to do something for him.

“You could lean on me if you wanted to,” he said. Even though he already knew what Guy's response would be.

“I don't need to lean on anyone,” Guy said. “My legs still work.”

“Of course,” Kyle said. Letting his hand drop. He was about to turn around when Guy reached up to his forehead again.

“Did you put a band aid on me?” Guy asked.

“Yeah,” Kyle said. Again starting to turn around when Guy frowned.

“You didn't put any weird anime shit on it right?”

Kyle frowned.

“What are you talking about?”

“Sometimes you put weird anime drawings on things that should not have weird anime drawings,” Guy said.

Kyle couldn't help smiling a bit.

“There's no anime on the band aid,” Kyle said. Sincere but he still couldn't stop smiling.

Guy didn't say anything for a second but then he frowned before giving Kyle his _“you gotta be kidding me”_ -look.

“You put Supes stupid S-shield on it didn't you?”

Kyle would have argued that it wasn't stupid, but he couldn't stop grinning.

“You are a terrible friend,” Guy said. “You're supposed to be nice to me. I am dying after all.”

“I thought we established that you weren't going to die,” Kyle said.

“Oh, not from this.” Guy pointed at his shoulder. “But this head injury is going to kill me.”

There was the Guy Kyle knew. Whining and grumbling about the small injuries and pretending the big hurts were actually nothing. Kyle smiled a little more gentle and less grinning this time.

“Come on, we should get going.” He started walking, and then said, without turning around: “Or do you want me to kiss it better?”

He was sure he imagined Guy mumbling “maybe” behind him.


	6. Chapter 6

The day that followed was thankfully uneventful, but it was becoming clear that Guy's pain was getting a lot worse. Eventually the little noises of pain that Guy couldn't quite bite back joined the soundtrack of the forest. His pain was also making the man more irritable, which was to be expected, but this lead to less conversing and more silence. The silence stretching out and affecting Kyle's mood as well. He knew his optimism was waning, and a growing sense of hopelessness was growing in his chest.

That night his ring woke him up again, but in time this time. Guy was scrambling to get up from bed, and Kyle just rolled over across his own mattress and grabbed Guy, pulling him down on the mattress, with Guy's back against Kyle's chest. He wrapped his arms around Guy and held on. Guy kept struggling, his legs kicking and Kyle wrapped his around Guy's to keep them still too. Guy kept shouting unintelligible nonsense again, but Kyle just held on tight until Guy eventually calmed down. His breathing fast and hard, slowed down, and the man fell asleep without ever really waking up. Kyle started to let go, but Guy let out a whimper and so Kyle stayed. His arms around Guy's torso, and head leaned against Guy's broad back, he let Guy's steady breathing lull him back to sleep.

Kyle was the first one to wake. He was still holding on to Guy, and he took this moment too just lie there and enjoy the closeness and warmth from the other man. Kyle spent a brief moment imagining waking up like this close to Guy every morning – and he realized that he wanted that. Wanted this closeness on a regular basis, so badly his heart ached when he forced himself to pull away.

He rolled back to his own mattress, but with his head turned so that he could look at Guy, and watch as he started to move a little bit. Guy let out a pained little hiss as he moved and rolled over on his back. Kyle got up and started to rummage around after all of the powders.

He made a construct mug of water, mixing in the pain killer in it, before he administered the other powder directly on the wound. The blood wasn't gushing out of it, but it continued to seep out and it took the powder a lot longer to have an affect.

“How are you?” Kyle asked. Guy opened the eyes he had closed while Kyle was helping out. He looked up at Kyle with a frown, his face lined with pain.

“Feels like it's spreadin',” Guy said. “Whole arm feels numb.”

Kyle bit his bottom lip. He couldn't hide the worry he was feeling, and they were definitely going to need to find more flowers to replace the powder they had already used up. He said as much to Guy who nodded.

“Guess we'll leave the path then?” Guy asked. Kyle nodded.

“Yeah, we use the rings to make sure we head in the right direction, but it doesn't seem likely we'll find any flowers on the path, since so far we haven't seen any.”

They started walking after they had eaten a few berries. The berries were also dwindling, but at least their rings would take care of making sure they didn't starve to death. However Kyle couldn't shake the hopeless feeling from the day before as he took the lead.

The bushes stretched out over the ground crunched underneath their heavy boots, and it was only the rings protective shield that prevented the long thorns from piercing their boots and pricking their feet. Other than more bushes under their feet there wasn't much of difference off path. Perhaps a few more mushrooms growing around them, with their unnatural glow. They zig-zagged their way through the forest, as they kept their eye out for places where flowers might grown, but after several hours they still hadn't found any.

“We should just burn this forest to the ground,” Kyle muttered. He suspected that it might be afternoon, but he wasn't sure, and he didn't bother asking the ring. When he didn't get a response from Guy, not even asking what he had said, Kyle turned around. At first he didn't even see Guy, but then he spotted something green a couple of hundred meters back. Kyle frowned and walked back towards the man.

Guy was leaning with his good shoulder against a tree, his eyes closed and a pained line between his eyes. He didn't even open his eyes when Kyle came closer.

“Guy?” Kyle asked. Guy grunted, but didn't say anything and his eyes stayed closed.

“What's the matter?” Kyle asked, even though it was a stupid question. He knew the answer before Guy even opened his mouth.

“Hurts,” Guy muttered. He opened his eyes but he didn't look at Kyle.

“Let's get you some more pain meds,” Kyle said.

“Don't think it'll help,” Guy said, but Kyle was already preparing it. He needed to do something. Guy was suffering more and more, and Kyle needed to help him.

Guy drank the mixture without protest, and they waited for a little bit longer before they started walking again. This time with Guy in the lead so that he could set the pace.

Night fell not long after, and while Kyle wasn't thrilled about the prospect of making camp off the path he reminded himself that they had gotten attacked on the path so clearly it wouldn't matter.

They went to bed as soon as they stopped, but Kyle lay awake watching Guy and listening for his breathing to even out, indicating that he had fallen asleep. Kyle had the beginnings of a theory but he still hesitated a bit. He could so easily slip over to Guy's mattress and lie there next to him in case Guy had another nightmare, which seemed likely since they were occurring every single night. If Kyle was already there maybe he could defuse the situation faster. It was a theory at least. Or was it just a bad excuse for Kyle to be closer to Guy? He wasn't sure himself. Would it be taking advantage of the other man?

Kyle bit his bottom lip and stayed where he was, but he didn't fall asleep. The opposing arguments clashing against each other in his head and he couldn't make up his mind one way or the other. Not until Guy, who had fallen asleep on his back, rolled over on his side with his back against Kyle. He let out a small pained whimper with the movement, but didn't wake up. Soon the other man was even snoring a little bit. Kyle made up his mind.

As quiet and careful as possible he crawled over to Guy's mattress. He hesitated again for a mere moment before he put one arm around Guy's waist and tucked himself in against Guy's back. Forehead leaning against Guy's shoulder blade. It didn't take long until he fell asleep, and for the first time in many nights in a row they both slept through the night.

Kyle woke up first. Again he couldn't quite resist the impulse to just lie there holding on to Guy, but he forced himself to move away eventually. Guy took longer to wake up, and despite having slept more he seemed to be in as much pain, if not more, as the previous day. They didn't sit around for long, and were soon on the move again.

Around lunch time they stumbled across a very small clearing, no more than a few feet of grass rather than bushes, and the sun shining down bright through a gap in the foliage above them. A few purple flowers were growing in the grass and Kyle immediately started picking them. He made a very elaborate construct to dry and then grind them into powder, while he and Guy sat down with their backs against two trees. Guy closed his eyes, but Kyle couldn't help glancing at him.

They stayed there, perhaps a lot longer than they should have, before they started walking again. As they made camp that night Kyle counted the days they had spent in the forest, and the feeling of hopelessness grew even more. What if it really was just all a myth and a legend? Or what if they had missed the hole and the flower because they were in the wrong part of the forest? How much longer would they wander lost in these woods? And how much longer did Guy have? The man couldn't hide how much pain he was in from showing on his face – and it was clear it was only getting worse.

That night Kyle once again waited until Guy had fallen asleep and then crawled over to Guy's mattress too. He figured if Guy did wake up Kyle could maybe argue that he was only trying to conserve his ring charge.

Two more days and nights passed in much the same way until the morning when Guy woke up screaming in pain. Kyle had only just started to wake up and was still a bit sleep addled when he registered the pained scream. He scrambled up on his knees and turned Guy over on his back. The man blinked awake, having stopped screaming but he panted loudly and his face was a grimace of pain. Clear red blood flowed from the wound.

Kyle made a construct to pull the bag to him and he quickly found the purple powder he was just about to sprinkle it on Guy's shoulder when he whimpered and screwed his eyes shut in pain. Kyle quickly sprinkled the powder on the wound, but nothing seemed to happen. Kyle's eyes widened and he stared at it, trying to will it to work. His ring flared green.

“Guy,” Kyle said. He didn't even hesitate and put a hand on Guy's face, cupping Guy's cheek in his palm.

“Hurts,” Guy whimpered. His eyes still closed and expression still a grimace of pain. Kyle's chest constricted and he wished there was something else he could do. Guy was his partner, Kyle was supposed to take care of him. This whole situation was making him feel so useless, there was nothing he could do. There was nothing he could go and punch to make Guy's pain go away. There were no constructs he could make. There was nothing he could do, and it was so hard to watch.

He put more powder on the wound, and it finally started to work. The blood stopped seeping out, coagulating into a black mess once more.

“Guy,” Kyle said, voice soft. “Guy,” he said again. Unsure what to say, or what to do.

Guy's eyes blinked open and he looked up at Kyle, there were tears at the corners of his eyes, and Kyle still didn't know what to do. What was there to do? _Nothing?_

He left his hand on Guy's cheek for another moment, and just looked at him. Guy breathed heavily through his nose, only seeming half aware of Kyle. Guy kept making pained noises every now and again. Kyle pulled his hand away eventually and prepared the pain killer, before he helped Guy sit up. Guy couldn't move his arm anymore and he put it in a green construct sling.

“Should just cut off the arm,” Guy muttered. Kyle wasn't sure if he was serious or not, but at least the man was talking again and not just making those whimpering noises that made Kyle's heart ache with how badly he wanted to comfort Guy, but didn't know how.

Progress was slow that day, Guy had to walk very slowly in order to not jostle his shoulder too badly. In the evening the wound started bleeding again and once again the powder didn't seem to work right away. Kyle was starting to worry that soon it would be completely useless, at which point Guy would start bleeding out instead. He forced himself to push that thought to the back of his mind.

It took a long time for Guy's breathing to slow down and for him to fall asleep that night, but as soon as he did Kyle, as had become his habit, moved over to Guy's mattress. It was the only thing Kyle knew that seemed to make it at least a little bit easier for Guy, and if Kyle found it comforting as well, _who could judge him?_

He woke the next morning because of Guy's rumbling but low voice.

“... know _I am_ easy, but I figured someone at least had to buy _you_ dinner before you slept with 'em.”

“Huh?” Kyle mumble before he had even opened his eyes. His head was resting one something that kept moving up and down slightly, and it took him a moment as well as opening his eyes to realize he was sleeping with his head on Guy's chest. He'd also been drooling on Guy's undershirt he realized and he cringed inwardly. Before the full situation became clear to him. He had woken up because Guy as talking. He shot up so fast he got a little bit dizzy, but at least he was sitting up and could take in the situation. Guy was lying on his back, head on a green pillow and he looked up at Kyle with an amused expression.

“I- I- Uh-” Kyle stammered. Guy arched an eyebrow.

“You didn't have nightmares when I slept next to you,” Kyle said in a rush. “I didn't want you running off again in your sleep.”

Something flashed over Guy's expression so fast Kyle couldn't quite grasp it, but it almost looked like disappointment, but he couldn't fathom why. Then his face screwed up in a pained grimace again, and Kyle immediately went for the pouch with the powder.

“You are right though,” Kyle said once the wound had been dealt with and Guy had drunk the pain killer. “I am strictly a three dates before putting out kinda person,” Kyle said. Which was a lie, a blatant one at that, and Guy knew it.

“Heh,” Guy started laughing but gasped and hissed from the pain because of it. “Aah, don't make me laugh,” he said.

“I'm sorry,” Kyle said and without thinking put a hand on Guy's healthy arm. He was sorry, and yet there was that selfish part of him that had missed Guy's laughter.

Guy didn't say anything more about having woken up with Kyle sleeping on him, and so Kyle decided that it would probably be safest to not mention it again and just move on like nothing had happened. However that evening when they made camp again and Kyle made a mattress of his own he caught Guy lifting an eyebrow and looking at Kyle questioningly.

“Really? We gonna keep up the pretense that you aren't going to sneak into my bed once I'm asleep?” Guy asked.

“Uh-”

“Come on Rayner, we both know you're right about me not rushing off in my sleep being a good thing, and if you can prevent that by sharing my bed I'm not gonna stop ya.”

Kyle still hesitated for only a second before making his construct wink out of existence. And that night he laid down on Guy's mattress right away. Lying on his back next to Guy who was curled up on his side as usual. However the next morning, Kyle woke up spooning Guy. Arm slung over Guy's waist, head leaning against Guy's back and his nose filled with the scent of Guy Gardner, and a very awkward situation in his pants. Fortunately Guy wasn't awake and so Kyle could roll over on his back again and think about other things until his erection went away.

Guy walked very slowly that day, and he seemed to struggle to keep moving at all, especially in a straight line. Around midday Guy unexpectedly staggered to his left and bumped into a tree. He screamed in pain, stumbled a few steps forward and then crumpled to the ground. It all happened so fast that Kyle didn't have time to react, but when Guy ended up on the ground Kyle sprang forward. He managed to help Guy lean against a tree. His eyes were screwed shut and he panted through clenched teeth.

Kyle had one hand on Guy's arm, it was sweaty and clammy through the uniform. The other hand along with a construct was preparing the pain medication. He held it out for Guy who shook his head.

“Won't help,” Guy ground out. He moved his eyes from the cup Kyle was holding out. To look at Kyle and there was a look in those eyes that Kyle had never before seen in Guy's eyes. Except no, he had seen it once before. When Guy had been a red lantern, for that brief second when Guy had begged Kyle to kill him. Kyle took a deep breath, his chest suddenly so tight he felt like he couldn't get enough air.

“Kyle,” Guy managed to say.

“No,” Kyle said. “Don't say it.” He held out the cup for Guy again, but Guy closed his eyes and tilted his head back, he was still breathing hard, and every exhale also brought with it a whimper.

“Let me help,” Kyle said.

Guy didn't reply right away.

“Nothin' ya can do,” Guy said eventually.

Kyle glanced at Guy's shoulder and saw a growing blood stain there. Kyle held up the cup to Guy's lips.

“Please just drink it.”

Guy opened his eyes, he gave Kyle an almost resigned look, but he did open his mouth and Kyle carefully tipped the contents of the cup into Guy's mouth. Guy closed his eyes again and swallowed. He still looked to be in a great deal of pain. Kyle found the other pouch.

“You're bleeding again,” Kyle said. Guy had his head tilted back and he wasn't looking at Kyle.

“Guy,” Kyle tried.

“No point,” Guy said.

“Don't you dare give up on me,” Kyle growled. Guy's eyes flew open and they were pure defiance now.

“I would never,” he said. Kyle force himself to smile, and then without thinking stroked his fingers across Guy's cheek.

“There you are,” Kyle said. “Now lose the uniform so I can deal with your wound.”

Guy didn't say anything, but the uniform did disappear and Kyle could administer the powder to the wound. It took a long time to stop bleeding and Guy sat the whole time with eyes closed and head tilted back against the tree trunk.

“You okay to get up?” Kyle asked after a moment.

“Yeah, just a sec,” Guy mumbled.

Kyle frowned but waited. Soon Guy opened his eyes and started moving, but groaned and fell back against the tree.

“Want a hand?” Kyle asked.

“Can I have yours instead of mine?” Guy asked.

“Nah, but you get to hold on to it for a bit.”

Guy smiled at that, and Kyle smile back.

He helped Guy up to his feet again. Guy wobbled a bit and he draped his arm over Kyle's shoulders and leaned on him. Kyle decided not to say anything, and instead they started walking. Guy didn't lean heavily on Kyle, and Kyle got the impression it was mostly to keep Guy steady and on his feet. This did slow them down even more, especially walking side by side in a forest where the trees were beginning to grow closer and closer together, leaving very little room for anything to pass between them.

That night Guy fell to sleep on the side of the mattress Kyle usually took, so that when Kyle laid down Guy was curled up on his side and facing Kyle instead of his back. Kyle didn't think much of it and just settled down on his back and soon fell asleep.

He woke up some time in the middle of the night when Guy's nose made contact with Kyle's neck. He jumped a little in surprise and turned his head. Guy had managed to scoot his way closer to Kyle so that he was lying almost on top of Kyle, with his face buried in Kyle's neck.

“'m cold,” he heard Guy mumble. Still half asleep Kyle didn't think much, just turned over on his side so that he was facing Guy. He put his arm over his upper body, and rested his head over Guy's and the other man moved even closer pressing his face against Kyle's chest.

When Kyle woke again in the morning Guy was still pressed up as close to Kyle as possible, and that was why Kyle could so clearly feel how Guy was shivering, he was also whimpering badly. Kyle squeezed his arm that was still slung over Guy in a tight hug before he moved back a bit. Guy moved after him. Kyle leaned his head back and looked at Guy. His forehead was dripping with sweat and his hair was a little bit damp with it as well. He was also pale, but that he was most of the time now.

“Guy,” Kyle said. Guy shivered again and let out a pained little moan. Kyle bit his bottom lip.

“Wake up.”

Guy was reluctant to do so, but he slowly opened his eyes, they looked a bit glassy and dull. Kyle felt the worry grabbing him again.

“I'm cold,” Guy complained. Kyle worried at his bottom lip. Their rings and suits should be taking care of their body temperature, there was no reason for Guy to be feeling cold. He put a hand on Guy's forehead and as he suspect it was really warm to the touch.

“You're hot,” Kyle said.

“Yes, I am, and so are you, but that's hardly relevant right now is it?” Guy mumbled.

“No, I mean I think you have a fever,” Kyle said. The woman had mentioned something about fever. How when the fever set in things would go downhill with Guy's health really fast.

Kyle wanted to scream this was so frustrating.

“Oh,” Guy said, sounding a bit confused. “I don't think I've had a fever for years. That doesn't sound like something I would do.”

“You had a fever six months ago,” Kyle pointed out. Guy had managed to contract a bit of a flu on a planet they had visited, nothing serious, but he had been sick for a while. And absolutely infuriating because he knew it wasn't deadly and yet kept acting like he was about to die. So the opposite of this situation where it was possible that he might die, but he acted like it was nothing. There were aspects of Guy that Kyle would never understand.

“Huh.”

Kyle chose to not say anything more and instead get going with the morning routine of taking care of the wound and make Guy drink some of the pain medication. They left late when Guy managed to get to his feet. He continued to shiver non stop, and he was very wobbly on his feet. So there was no other solution than letting him hang on Kyle as they walked.

“Are you sure you don't want a stretcher?” Kyle asked.

“I can walk.”

Kyle chose not to fight with him about it, and instead they inched forward very slowly. They didn't even manage to walk for the whole day. Around midday Guy's legs gave out under him and he dropped his whole weight on Kyle who staggered for a bit to the side, and bumped into a tree.

Guy mumbled something that sounded like 'tired'. Kyle created a mattress for him and slowly lowered him down. Kyle sank down on the ground, back against a tree and head buried in his hands. He tried his best to control his breathing. He didn't know what to do. Guy had a fever and it was getting worse. He wished Soranik was there. He'd take any doctor at this point really, but most of all he wished for her. Their relationship might not have worked out, but that hadn't changed the fact that she was the best doctor he knew.

Kyle lost track of time, but it had been at least an hour when Guy suddenly shouted something Kyle didn't understand. He rushed over to the mattress and knelt next to Guy though. Putting a hand on Guy's chest, feeling Guy's heart beating strong but fast. His eyes were wide open, but he didn't seem to see anything.

“Guy?” Kyle asked. Guy stared unseeing up at the sky and suddenly shouted something Kyle did understand, followed by a name he did recognize.

“Tora!”

Kyle pulled his hand away from Guy slowly. As Guy started shouting in what Kyle assumed had to be Norwegian.

“Tora! Hvor er du? Jeg savner deg!”

The ring while very good at translating all alien languages had a strange quirk where it didn't always translate all the languages from Earth right away. It seemed to expect the wearer to speak all languages on their home planet. According to most other lanterns Kyle had talked to, this was true not just for Earth but also other planets with multiple languages.

Kyle could chose to ask the ring to translate what Guy was saying, but in the end he chose not to. He tried very hard not to think too much or feel anything in particular about Guy calling out for Tora, but he was finding it hard not to.

He constructed a protective bubble around Guy and walked a little bit away to lean against a tree and collect himself. It was silly to get affected like that. It was Tora. The love of Guy's life, or had been. Kyle wasn't sure what Guy felt anymore. He'd said they'd called it pretty much definitely quits, and then he hadn't talked a lot about her anymore. But Kyle had no idea what that really meant about how Guy felt.

“Stupid,” Kyle muttered out loud. He'd gotten so wrapped up in his own feelings. Had gotten distracted because there had been a few moments lately where it had felt like Guy was responding to Kyle's own changing feelings, but he must have been deluding himself. Except playing back his memories of the past days in this forest, it was hard to think he was imagining things.

He scrubbed a hand over his face and shook his head. This was all completely pointless to think of anyway. He had no way of saving Guy. His whole body went cold at the thought. He didn't know how to save Guy.

“Kyle!”

Kyle's head snapped up when he heard his name shouted and he ran back to Guy.

Guy was thrashing wildly on the mattress. Tossing himself back and forth and shouting both from the pain but also screaming Kyle's name. Kyle dropped the protection field and dropped down on his knees on the mattress. He put his hands on Guy's body trying to hold him down.

“Guy!” Kyle shouted. “Guy it's me calm down.”

He didn't look at Kyle, but his words must have gotten through to him, because Guy settled down again on the bed. There was a red stain on his uniform and Kyle couldn't help sighing before he went to get the powder.

Once the wound had stopped bleeding, Kyle made the mattress float and started walking again. He wasn't going to stop now. Behind him Guy was babbling on, delirious now, and Kyle tried to tone it out. However there was nothing to distract him from the growing feeling that Kyle had failed. He didn't stop walking until well into the night, and then he fell down on the mattress. Lying on his stomach and with one arm flung across Guy's stomach, he fell asleep immediately.  
The next morning it took him some time, but he managed to wake up Guy and give him the pain medication. He also seemed a bit more lucid than the day before. He definitely couldn't walk though, and didn't even protest when Kyle simply lifted him up on the mattress.

They were silent as they walked. Kyle kept glancing back at Guy who seemed to be napping for most of the day.

Kyle didn't know how many hours had passed when Guy suddenly said:

“Oh fuck.”

“What is-” Kyle started to say before he had fully turned around. It was quite obvious what it was as soon as he turned around though. The wound had opened up again, and red blood was flowing freely from it, staining Guy and the mattress under him.

Kyle quickly settled the mattress on the ground again, helped Guy sit up leaned against a tree and then sprinkled some of the purple powder on it. They waited. Kyle held his breath. Guy was pale and his gaze unsteady and he seemed to drift away a bit. The wound continued bleeding.

“It's not stopping,” Kyle muttered and he could feel panic start to creep up on him. Like an icy hand gripping him and his brain started whirring, imagining all the worst case scenarios.

“Kyle,” Guy said. “Kyle,” he repeated. Kyle was busy staring at the wound and didn't look at Guy's face, but his tone of voice was so calm and unbothered by it all. The wound continued bleeding.

“Kyle,” Guy said again. Kyle looked up at his face. Guy was smiling, a small crooked smile, and he really did look completely unbothered by what was happening.

“I've been tryin'-” he started and then winced a little bit, probably from the pain.

“Guy, your wound we have to-” Kyle started to say.

“Nevermind that now,” Guy said. Because of course he did, Guy had gotten something else in his head now, and wasn't going to let something like the magical wound that was killing him get in the way of him making a point or whatever it was he was trying to say.

“Guy-” Kyle tried again, but Guy ignored him.

“I think we should go out for dinner when this is over,” Guy said. Kyle stared at him, trying to figure out what he was saying.

“Uh-”

Guy closed his eyes, swallowing hard, face lined with pain, but he opened his eyes again and looked straight at Kyle.

“A date,” Guy said. “I've been trying to ask you out for weeks.”

“Uh-” Kyle said again. Guy had to be delirious again. Rambling and not knowing what he was saying.

“What do you sa-” Guy interrupted himself with a long pained groan, followed by gasping for air. “Can't-” he gasped out, “Can't breath. Can't see.” His eyes glazed over and he stopped moving, even stopped breathing and Kyle could only stare as cold panic took over his mind.


	7. Chapter 7

He had failed. He failed to save Guy. 

Kyle stared at Guy, for a second. Emotions running wild inside of him and panic and the stress growing. He failed. Guy was dying and Kyle had failed him. His breathing picked up, and his stomach twisted into a knot.

_No._

He struggled to put a halt to his thoughts running away from him. Forced his breathing down to normal. He had to calm down. He didn't let fear and panic rule him. He was a Green Lantern, he could overcome those feelings. And it couldn't be over yet.

He reached out and put his fingers on Guy's neck, it took a few seconds but he could feel a thready pulse, and holding his hand there he realized that Guy was still breathing, it was uneven and almost imperceptible when he was just watching the man.

It wasn't over yet, but now he had to act fast.

There had to be a way of finding that flower faster than just walking around like this. He glanced down at the ring. One of the most powerful objects in the universe, capable of doing anything its wearer wanted. Surely it should be able to find a flower. So he told it to scan the forest. They should have thought of this before. They really should have. Kyle wanted to blame both Hal and Guy for influencing him, for telling him not to rely on the ring so much.

 _> Unable to scan--<_ The ring started to inform him. Kyle let out an explosive breath and glared at the ring. Of course this was why he shouldn't rely on the ring. However. He glanced up at the trees.

Getting to his feet he walked a little bit away from Guy. He didn't want anything to fall down on top of the man who was still unconscious. He shot up flying through the foliage, the ring's force field pushing away everything that got in his way such as leaves and branches. He broke through the top of the foliage and out into the bright sunlight. His eyes being so used to the dim light of the forest hurt in the sunlight and he made himself a pair of sunglasses before telling the ring to scan for the flower again, but it still seemed unable to scan.

Kyle cursed and looked out over the forest. The tops of the trees spreading out in every direction. There wasn't as far as he could tell any way of spotting this hole in the ground they were looking for. He floated a little bit higher but still he could see nothing but leaves. He sighed. The stress and frustration gnawing on his insides. There had to be some way of scanning to find something, even if it wasn't the flower. There had to be something the ring could scan for that would bring them closer in the right direction.

“Scan for anything weird.”

_> Unable to comply<_

“Of course not,” Kyle muttered.Not specific enough maybe. But at the same time he didn't want to ask it to scan for just a hole in the ground. “Scan for anything that doesn't belong?”

 _> Forest not belonging on this world<_ The ring informed him. Kyle frowned.

“What? Nevermind, we don't have time for that. Scan for anything that does not belong in this forest.”

It took a few seconds before the ring came back to him.

_> A crashed space ship. Origin unknown but it does not originate from this planet, nor this forest<_

“Huh, where?” Kyle asked. Maybe it was nothing, but it was the only shot they had and he was going to do everything he could.

_> Approximately 4.5 miles due south from current location<_

Kyle bit his bottom lip. It might be nothing, but he had to take the chance. 

He dropped back down into the forest and checked up on Guy. He was mumbling under his breath, something about a mouse he needed to protect. Kyle took it as a good sign that Guy was delirious and rambling again, or at least it was better than him being unconscious.

Kyle turned Guy's mattress into a stretcher and then built a construct ambulance around the stretcher, making sure to close and lock the back door of it before he sat down in the driver's seat. He turned a key in the ignition and the motor hummed into life. He pushed a button and the ambulance lifted off vertically into the air. It floated up breaking off any branches in its way. Once they were floating above the treetops Kyle made wings slide out the side of the ambulance and he pressed the accelerator pedal, the ambulance shot forward through the air.

“Show the way,” he told the ring. “I'm gonna save you,” he called out over his shoulder to the back of the ambulance.

Four and a half miles was a short distance in a flying ambulance and soon Kyle slowed down. An arrow was pointing down at the trees, but that was also all that Kyle could see – trees.

Stopping a little bit away from the arrow, Kyle started to lower the ambulance again. However he discovered that this was a lot more difficult and the ambulance ended up resting in the crown of a tree. The top of the ambulance still peeking out above the leaves and the bottom half resting on the branches in the middle of the foliage, with the wheels peeking out underneath the leaves.

Fortunately it seemed like he had a little bit of luck left, because the ambulance seemed to be resting pretty securely on several strong branches and not just precariously balanced on one. Kyle tried to open the door on his side, but it got stuck after he had only opened it a little bit. He pushed at it, but it didn't budge. He could look out through the gap, he mostly saw leaves, but he could glimpse the ground underneath them.

He made it through to the back of the ambulance and checked on Guy. He was quiet now, lying with his eyes closed on the stretcher, but after a quick check Kyle reassured himself that the man was still breathing and had a pulse.

Kyle opened the back door of the ambulance, but his movement at the back of it made the ambulance sway. Kyle grabbed hold of one of the shelves in the back of the ambulance. 

He looked out of the back. There were leaves everywhere, and branches and he could hardly see the ground. He glanced at Guy over his shoulder. Getting him down was going to be tricky, and Kyle would need to check things out first. He backed up more into the middle. There he laid down on his stomach and crawled forward, hoping that he would avoid making the ambulance sway again due to his weight at the end. The ambulance stayed still this time, and Kyle could look down over the edge.

They were in the crown of one tree, but right behind the ambulance was another tree, some of its branches was even helping in holding up the ambulance. Kyle however spotted a branch a bit further down which didn't seem to be integral in holding up the ambulance. It also wasn't so far down that it wouldn't be easy for Kyle to climb over the edge of the ambulance and lower himself to stand on that branch.

Kyle twisted around, and holding on to the back edge of the ambulance he lowered himself down. His feet touched the branch, and he was still able to just peek over the edge into the back of the ambulance. The branch made a creaking noise, and swayed a little bit under Kyle's feet when he put more of his weight on it, but it didn't break. Kyle crouched down on the branch and made a rope ladder down, which he started to climb.

It was a tall tree but eventually he reached the ground, stepping off the ladder he accidentally stepped on a couple of mushrooms, they squashed under his booth and made a whining noise. The red one puffed out a small cloud of red spores and Kyle made sure he didn't breath any of it in.

Now he had to solve the problem of how to get Guy out of the ambulance. He looked up and saw the bottom of the ambulance, only half obscured by leaves and branches. Maybe he could lower it down somehow. He frowned. While he couldn't see the top of the ambulance, he knew that he could make four hatches in the corners of the roof open up, and four hot air balloons slowly inflating until they could float the ambulance. Kyle smiled and sent a bunch of construct monkeys wearing hard hats and carrying chainsaws to climb up the trees and start cutting off branches. Soon the bottom of the ambulance was hanging freely instead of resting on anything, and Kyle could start lowering it down slowly by releasing a little bit of air at a time from the balloons.

Once the ambulance was on the ground Kyle transformed it into a pavilion. Guy as sleeping at this point. Kyle set up a machine to keep an eye on Guy's vital signs, it would alert him through the ring if anything happened.

“I'll be right back,” Kyle said. Leaving a couple of armed construct monkeys to keep watch Kyle walked towards the spot the arrow had pointed at.

It was only about a hundred meters away, and Kyle was glad that he had kept his eyes on the ground to see where he was going because all of a sudden the ground just disappeared. He had reached the hole in the ground.

He couldn't see how big it was, he couldn't see the other edge mostly because of the trees. Tall trees had grown up from the hole, the tops of them on level with the trees growing around the hole, just like everywhere else it formed a ceiling of leaves that didn't let through much sunlight at all. Kyle could see why they wouldn't have been able to spot it from the air. People must have been to the hole once though, because he thought he could see a staircase built along the side of the hole, and Kyle suspect that maybe it ran along the side of the hole all the way down – or had done once upon a time. The wood had rotted away and it looked like it would be broken in a lot of places, there was also the fact that the trees grew fairly close to the side of the hole and so some must have grown into the staircase. The ever present bushes had grown up the sides of the hole, and came spilling out on the edge and continued into the forest.

Kyle looked down, but he couldn't see the bottom of the hole. It seemed to go on for a long time and was pitch black down there. Somewhere around here there had to be a flower. He hoped it wasn't growing at the bottom of the hole, so he started walking around the edge of it. It took half an hour to walk around it, and not until he had almost reached the spot he started at did he spot the flowers.

“Typical,” he grumbled annoyed, but at least he had found them – they were real.

They grew in a clump at the edge of the hole vines hanging over the edge and dangling down the side of the hole. It was a green plant with little golden flowers that looked a lot like snowdrops. Kyle almost shouted with joy when he saw them and he walked up to them falling to his knees. Suddenly days of stress and tension leaving him with this immense feeling of relief. He had found the flowers. Kyle plucked a few of them, they had a peculiar scent that reminded him a little bit of the smell of early fall on the morning after a night of rain.

Having gathered the flowers he hurried back to Guy.

Guy was still asleep, but breathing and alive, so Kyle set about making a construct to dry the flowers quickly, and then start to crush them into a powder. Their scent changing and now reminding him of hot summer days.

He mixed them in the last of their water and then went to Guy's side waking him up. Guy was slow to wake and his eyes were bleary when they opened and looked at Kyle.

“Kyle?” Guy asked, sounding groggy and not all there. Kyle smiled at him and held out the cup.

“Here, drink this,” Kyle said. He held it up to Guy's lips and helped him drink it all. He let go of Guy's head, letting it sink down on the pillow again once he had swallowed.

Kyle watched him, but nothing seemed to happen right away. Instead Guy seemed to fall back asleep. Kyle reminded himself that it would probably take a little bit longer. He sat down and closed his eyes. He had succeeded, and the calm and relief swept over him. A warm comforting blanket of knowledge that Guy was going to be alright. Kyle had saved him.

He breathed out a couple of times and the thought about how he had found the place wormed itself back into Kyle's consciousness. The ring had said the forest didn't belong, and the whole reason they could find the hole at all was because there was a crashed spaceship, presumably at the bottom of the hole. Kyle frowned. Relaxed and not feeling so worried about Guy his curiosity was starting to get fired up.

He wanted to go and check it out, but he didn't want to leave Guy all alone. He needed to bring him with him for when he woke up. So he made the bed Guy was on float, and the rest of the constructs wink out of existence before he returned to the hole, with Guy floating behind him.

Kyle made an elevator. It was big enough for Kyle and Guy on the stretcher but not much more space, since he had to make it very narrow and elongated to fit between the wall of the hole and the trees. He also found a spot where the trees weren't growing as close to the side.

It was a very long elevator ride, close to ten minutes, and Guy slept through it all. Eventually it shuddered to a stop, bumping down on the ground with a loud clanking noise ringing out, and making the whole thing shake a bit. Kyle opened the doors, but on the outside it was so pitch black it was impossible to see anything, no mushrooms grew here so not even their glow was present. Walking made the bushes underneath his boots move against the surface beneath, and the noise reminded Kyle of something scraping against metal. Kyle stopped and sent up a glowing orb of green into the air.

In its green light he could see that there were trees all around him, some he could see the foot of, some seemed to stick up through holes in the ground. Walking a little bit closer he could see the jagged metal edges around these tree trunks – this had to be the crashed spaceship he was standing on. 

He guessed from the way the hole in the ground seemed to be a round-ish shape that the spaceship was a saucer shaped one, and it had burrowed down into the ground bottom – or top – first. Trees either grew up through the ship, or on top of it, and Kyle also spotted a cluster of other trees. Walking closer, across the bushes that broke and snapped under his boots, Kyle noticed they looked a little bit like oaks. But these were thin, twisted and gnarled. They were completely black, everything from the tree bark to the leaves and to the acorns that had fallen to the ground. The ground immediately around the oaks was clear of bushes, except one that seemed to be growing through the trunks of the oaks, connecting them all.

Kyle looked past them and spotted a fairly large hole in the ship, no trees were growing out of it, instead, only bushes had climbed out of it. He walked closer, and spotted a metal ladder hanging on the edge of the hole, and leading down into the dark ship. The ladder was almost completely covered in bushes, but Kyle didn't need to use it. The hole was large enough that the stretcher with Guy, could easily fit, and so Kyle floated down and into the ship, with Guy behind him.

He landed with a thud, and looked around as the green glowing orb floated down as well. Inside the ship bushes grew everywhere, they covered the floor, ceiling and walls, but it would be possible to walk on them.

Taking the lead, and strengthening the forcefield around Guy's stretcher to keep away the hanging brushes Kyle started walking. Glowing orb above his head and Guy trailing behind him.

He had landed in a corridor which he started to walk down, and it took him a while, and with the help of the ring scanning, to realize that the corridor seemed to be going in a spiral around and getting closer and closer to the middle of the ship. The bushes made it hard to see, but he presumed he was also walking past doors, on both sides of the corridor.

He spotted a pile of stones ahead of him, and when he got closer he also saw what looked like the remains of burned candles. Kyle frowned, and with a construct removed some of the bushes from the wall above the stones. Beneath it, on the metal wall he saw drawings of a fireball falling from the sky and landing, creating the hole. A drawing of a sleeping foal and people bowing to it. Kyle got the feeling that maybe it was some sort of ancient altar he had stumbled across.

He continued walking, until he reached an open hatch in the floor. The corridor continued forward beyond the hatch, and Kyle was going to just keep walking, but two trees had grown up through the floor and were blocking the path forward. Frowning again, he decided to descend through the hatch. He exited in a large space, and had to grow his illumination bigger to see more of where he was. Right in front of him were the roots and bottom half of tree trunks. There was an overturned container with dirt spilled out from it, next to the trees. Down here there was space enough for him to walk past the trees and he did. It looked like he had ended up in a sort of cargo hold. There were more containers here, one he walked past was filled to the brim with black acorns. There were also large cages, three with wide open doors, and two still closed with the remains of what could maybe be a horse or even a unicorn, though it was hard to see what with all of it buried in bushes.

Kyle walked across the room until he reached an almost completely hidden door leading to another corridor. He followed it for a few feet until it ended in a closed door. Using a construct he pushed it open and stepped inside a cramped round room – which he guessed had to have been the control room.There were as far as he could see no windows, but rather once, there had been large monitors hanging all around the room – now they were broken, some hanging precariously from their mountings, some lying on the floor. Underneath the monitors, lining the walls were machines of unknown purpose. In the middle of the room was a raised, circular, platform, with control panels all around the edge of it, and in the middle of those a large chair. A corpse sat in the chair, one collapsed control panel seemed fused to its lower body, and half of it's skull missing.

Kyle left Guy near the door and started looking around. This was the only place in the whole ship not covered in the thorny bushes and Kyle couldn't help wondering about that. He pushed a couple of buttons on a control panel, but nothing seemed to work, which wasn't surprising.

He glanced over his shoulder at Guy. The other man was still sleeping and Kyle wondered when Guy would wake up.

“Did this ship have a log of some sort?” He asked the ring. He could use a distraction. “And can you access it?” It was a long shot, but he figured it'd be worth a try.

_> The captain kept a log of the ship's missions<_

“Can you play it, starting with the last mission and translate it for me?” Kyle asked.

A long silence followed until eventually it was broken by a voice coming from the ring. There was a lot of static, and interference, words lost and muffled, but enough was clear for Kyle to get the picture.

He sat down in a construct chair next to Guy to listen and wait.

An hour had passed when there was a groan from Guy's bed and Kyle asked the ring to pause. He turned to Guy and watched the other man open his eyes, the beginnings of a frown on his face as he took in their surroundings.

“How are you feeling?” Kyle asked.

“Sore. A bit dizzy, everything seems to be spinning, am I lying down?”

“Yeah. You in any pain?” Kyle asked.

Guy seemed to think about it for a second and then shook his head.

“Nah, not as much as before. What happened?” he paused, looked around. “Where are we?”

“A spaceship,” Kyle said. Guy gave him a very confused stare.

“The last thing I remember is being stuck in that damn forest. What are we doing on a spaceship?” Guy asked.

“A crashed spaceship actually,” Kyle said.

“In the middle of the forest?” Guy asked.

“I actually think this might be the forest's origin,” Kyle said.

“What, the forest has an _origin story now?_ ” Guy asked.

“Sort of,” Kyle said.

“You better start explaining this shit soon or I'll slap you,” Guy said.

“Hey, a little gratitude please, I saved your life,” Kyle said.

“Thank you, now explain.”

“You get grumpy when you almost die, you know that?” Kyle said. Guy just gave him an unimpressed look.

“Fine, fine.” He started by telling Guy he had managed to access the captain's log through the ring and then started on what he had learned so far.

“The captain and the crew were smugglers and they came across a dying planet. There were no sentient life there, only a very large forest, with unicorns and silver oaks with gold acorns. They were sure they had found their big score, selling the unicorns as well as the acorns would make them rich. So they loaded up the cargo hold with a couple of unicorns, a couple of containers of acorns as well as saplings of the oaks and other plants.” Kyle paused.

“It was once they were back in space again, that things started to go wrong. At first his logs at least mention other members of the crew, but after a while it just seems like he's alone but hasn't quite realized it. He mentions chores that haven't been done and wondering why the person in charge of those things haven't done them. Eventually he just stops questioning these things as well. I think he was starting to lose his mind listen to this:”

He played a bit of one of the logs out loud so that Guy could hear it as well:

_>...Opened a cupboard in my quarters today and these thorny bushes spilled out. I have seen them elsewhere in the ship as well, especially in engineering and the cargo hold. But as soon as I think about it I- What was I talking about? Probably nothing of importance. The quadrupeds are getting restless and aggressive. They were so docile back on the planet, but the other day one of them tried to bite me when I went to feed it. Another tried to impale me on its horn. <_

“Sounds a bit absent minded perhaps,” Guy said, hesitant.

“It gets worse,” Kyle said. “This one is from after they had been in space again for three months. And a couple of weeks after the one I just played for you.” He started the other log.

_> Accidentally caught sight of my reflection today and noticed my left eye is missing. I can't remember that happening. And yet the injury doesn't look fresh, its scarred but healed, as if it happened a while ago. Why can't I remember?<_

Kyle played more of it.

_> I looked at the acorns today, there's these black spots on them. The saplings are still thriving, but some seem to have these black spots on their leaves. I was going to throw them out, try and make sure the rest aren't tainted. But- I didn't. Why didn't I throw them out?<_

“You think what? That the forest here grew from the trees transported in this ship?” Guy asked. 

Kyle nodded.

“Yeah, the ring claimed that the forest doesn't belong here. And you've seen what's happened. There's a whole abandoned town inside of this forest. It is still growing and expanding.”

“Why aren't they just cutting it down?” Guy asked. Kyle shrugged.

“I'm not sure, but something might be preventing them from doing it?”

“Like what?” Guy asked. Kyle played him another log entry.

_> There's bushes covering the walls in my room, but the voice tells me not to worry about them. I spend most of my time in the control room now. The bushes aren't there yet<_

“Something preventing them from seeing the danger,” Guy said and Kyle nodded again.

_> They are everywhere. They are in my mind. Can't get away. Must get away.<_

“Did he crash the ship?” Guy asked.

“I have no idea,” Kyle said. “Maybe?”

There was a long silence and Kyle had assumed that it was the end of the logs. But then the static got louder and louder, but beneath it all Kyle thought he could hear a voice.

“Wait, can you hear that?” he asked Guy. Making the ring turn up the volume even more they could start making out words.

_> Captain fina- dead. Hisss body mine- when it'sss no long- of uuuuse<_

After another long silence there was another entry.

_> Nativesss found the ship. Ssseam to think their godsss- Have tak'n the foalssss- they will regret … Foalsss sssensssse me but won't know- ... boody I am in … attack everyone<_

_> I am everywhere. Will find new body and move among them<_

“Okay, that's disturbing,” Kyle said.

“We should get this ship away from this planet,” Guy said. “Figure out how to stop the forest from spreading.” He had that determined look in his eyes. “Find whatever made those last logs and stop it.”

“Guy,” Kyle said. “You almost died. You- We are going to Oa. We can send someone else to deal with this.”

“No, I'm fine,” Guy protested. He slung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up. Only wincing slightly with the movement.

“I'm healing now,” Guy said “But I can rest later. We have a smuggler to catch and once we have sent him on his way to Oa we can save this planet.”

Kyle knew when it was pointless to argue with Guy, and this was exactly such a time.


	8. Chapter 8

Kyle and Guy flew slowly up in between the trees, dodging branches until they broke through the ceiling of leaves. It was less bright above the forest as the sun had started to sink. They hovered above the trees while Kyle used another gaggle of construct monkeys to prune the tree tops so that they would be able to find the ship again later. He had one monkey sitting on his shoulder shouting orders and wearing a top hat. Guy was floating around on his back, a short distance away, but once the monkey's were done he came closer again. Kyle gave the monkey on his shoulder a construct bana which it ate in one big bite before all the monkeys disappeared.

“Ready to go?” Guy asked floating upright now. He was still cradling his arm against his chest and Kyle wondered if it was sore. They had put on a construct bandage over the wound but it wasn't magically healed. Guy seemed okay, if a little bit subdued.

Kyle nodded and with the guidance of Kyle's ring they headed in the direction of the town again.

During the flight Kyle kept thinking of what they had learned from the ship's log, but also what they hadn't learned. There were a lot of unanswered questions. He looked down at the trees below them. Simply removing the ship could hardly stop the forest from spreading, maybe burning it all down was the solution, but what of everything that lived in the forest? Sure most creatures there seemed bent on killing any and all intruders, but that didn't necessarily mean they should be killed. No, if they could just stop the forest from growing even bigger, that would be the way, the question was how to accomplish it.

The advantage of flying was that they could do it with some speed, which meant instead of two weeks, they made the journey in a couple of hours. It was dark and late when they got to the town again.

“So, how we gonna find this smuggler again?” Guy asked as they descended in the town square. A few streetlights with gas lights illuminated the cobblestones and the house fronts. While it wasn't exactly bright, it was a lot more light than had been in the forest. Kyle felt relieved to be away from the forest and in a town again.

“We could head to the bar and ask the bartender,” Kyle said.

The bar was still open, it hadn't changed much and wasn't much more crowded than on their first visit.

“Just missed him,” the bartender said when they asked about Grax. “He's been out of town for a few days but returned earlier this evening. Left about an hour ago. But he usually returns around lunch time every day.” He eyed them “I have a room free upstairs if ya wanna rent it and stay the night.”

Kyle didn't feel very tempted by the offer, but Guy spoke up before Kyle could say anything.

“We'll take it.”

The room they were shown to was small and spartan.Two uncomfortable looking beds standing close together but with a nightstand in between them, a gas lamp standing on top of it. It was the only source of light as the room didn't have a window. Two large chests stood at the foot of each bed.

As soon as the bartender left Guy dropped down on the bed to the right with a content sigh.

“You alright?” Kyle asked.

“You have got to stop asking me that,” Guy muttered.

Kyle sank own on his own bed, and glanced at Guy who was lying on his back, his eyes closed.

“You were dying,” Kyle said.

“But I didn't.” Guy opened his eyes, turned his head and looked at Kyle. “Thanks to you.”

They lay like that for how long Kyle wasn't sure, just looking at each other. He could tell Guy was tired though, by the way his eyelids kept drooping. And every time he blinked he kept his eyes closed for longer and longer moments. Eventually Guy did drift off, softly snoring. Kyle watched him for a bit longer. Convincing himself that Guy was still there with him. Still breathing. Still alive.

They slept late the next morning. It was almost lunch time already by the time they woke up. There was breakfast, but Kyle didn't trust this place not to give him food poisoning, so he didn't eat anything. Trusting the ring to take care of his needs one more day. Guy on the other hand didn't have any such worries and ate with the fervor of a starving man.

Guy was on his third helping of food when Grax stepped in through the door.

“There you are,” he called out as soon as he spotted them. Kyle and Guy looked up at him. The man came towards them, looking over at the bartender at the same time as he took a seat. “I'll have the usual,” he called out to the man behind the counter. “But make it quick. I have to get going soon.”

“Sure thing,” the bartender replied.

Grax looked at Kyle and Guy.

“What took you so long?” He asked. His expression was serious, but there was something in his eye which gave Kyle a creeping feeling down his spine. Grax himself wasn't actually smiling, but somehow it felt like he was.

Guy opened his mouth but Kyle put a hand on his chest to quiet him. He fished out the acorn from his pocket and handed it over.

“Here, that's what you wanted isn't it,” Kyle said.

Grax looked at the acorn with an almost reverent gaze for a second before composing himself and he slipped the acorn into his own pocket.

“It is, and I suppose you'd like me to uphold my end of our bargain?”

“Of course,” Guy said, impatient.

“You'll find he has a compound to the east. Just head back to the edge of the forest and follow the tree line east and you'll spot it. It’s quite a long way there though.”

“Thanks,” Guy said. “I'd say it's been a pleasure doing business with ya, but I'd be lying.”

“Come on,” Kyle got to his feet. Guy looked at his half finished plate of food.

“But food,” he protested.

“Let's go.”

Kyle was impatient. He wanted to get this mission over with. As soon as they found Kerets he could tell Guy to transport him to Oa while he stayed behind and tried to figure out how to deal with the forest. He knew Guy would protest, but Kyle wanted Soranik to check up on him. Besides that way Guy could also send some more lanterns to help Kyle.

He glanced at Guy who was flying a couple of feet to the right of Kyle. He wasn't really looking forward to parting from Guy though. He tried not to think about the things that had happened in the forest, and focus on the mission at hand. It was difficult, because it was turning into a long flight with a lot of time for his thoughts to stray.

He felt confused and a bit uncertain, not necessarily about his own feelings. He was starting to come to terms with those. Unexpected as they were he was accepting them. What he didn't know was how to interpret Guy's actions of late. Was he imagining things because he wanted Guy to reciprocate? Or did Guy share Kyle's feelings? He just didn't know.

They flew in silence and the sun had already started to hang lower in the sky by the time Guy spotted the large compound of buildings near the forest.

“There it is,” Guy shouted and pointed. A tall barbed wire fence surrounded the many buildings that made up the compound. However as they came closer they spotted a large hole in the fence, where it faced the forest. Kyle frowned and they flew even closer. Descending near the broken fence he saw the bushes from the forest had stretched out from the forest and now lay like a wide path between the tree line and the doors to the largest building.

Flying low towards the doors they discovered that they had been wrenched open, seemingly by the bushes as they were hanging all over the doors. They flew inside. On the floor on either side of the open doors lay two dead aliens, holes in their chest with bushes growing through their bodies, and their mouths stuffed full of the thorny twigs. Kyle looked away.

They flew through the short hallway with it's low ceiling, the floor covered in bushes. Another broken door lead out into a smaller space right before the larger area that looked like it might have been some sort of hangar. The bushes didn't reach all the way into the hangar, just the first couple of feets. But in the small area before it the bushes were everywhere except for the pile of dead bodies. Holes gaping open in their chests and pieces of twigs left in the congealed blood.

“What the hell happened here?” Guy asked. Looking away from the bodies. These weren't natives of the planet, their skin was yellow and looked more like scales. They belonged to Kerets's crew.

“I don't think they've been dead long,” Guy said. “Day or two at most.”

Kyle chose not to ask the ring. Instead he flew into the open larger space of the hangar. Landing on the floor where the bushes stopped. There was a large hole in the roof letting in sunlight and Kyle suspected that there had to have been a spaceship parked on the floor at some point. Along the wall to Kyle's left were boxes stacked on top each other. In the middle of the room lay another body.

Kyle walked closer, and he heard Guy's steps close behind him. Even though Kyle had never seen him, he suspected that the body they reached had to be Kerets. He had a large bloody hole on the left side of his face, as if his eye had decided to explode, and take half his face with it. Kyle assumed that was what had killed him. He also guessed that Guy had been right when he said they hadn't been dead long.

“Does this mean we're done?” Guy asked.

“I don-” Kyle started but was interrupted by a low thump coming from the boxes to their left. Kyle frowned. He turned to Guy, holding a finger in front of his lip. They both crept towards the boxes and Kyle asked the ring to scan them. Most of the crates were filled with weapons, and Kyle made a mental note that they should transport those to Oa before they fell into the wrong hands. However the last crate had a body in it, a body with a still beating heart. Kyle pointed at the crate and Guy made a crowbar.

The crowbar wasn't really necessary, Guy barely used any of his strength to open the lid. Kyle reached down and lifted up the alien by the back of his uniform.

“Aaaaahhhh! Don't hurt me don't hurt me don't hurt me!” the alien screamed. Waving his hands in the air, and eyes tightly closed.

“Calm down,” Kyle said. “We're not gonna hurt you.”

“Much,” Guy said.

“Ignore him,” Kyle said. The alien opened his eyes and looked at Kyle in surprise and shocked confusion.

“Are they gone? Are the monsters gone?” he asked. Kyle let go of him and he stood in the box trembling and looking around himself with fear still evident in his eyes.

“What monsters?” Guy asked. And Kyle knew him well enough that he could guess that Guy was hoping there were monsters left that he could fight.

“B- bu-” The alien started. Eyes sweeping across the hangar behind Guy and Kyle. When his eyes stopped at the entrance he let out a high pitched shriek and dropped down in the crate again. Kyle and Guy leaned in closer and looked down. The alien sat with arms over his head rocking back and forth and mumbling over and over again:

“Killed them. Killed them all.”

“What killed them?” Kyle asked. The alien just continued mumbling and muttering.

“Not gonna get much out of that one,” Guy said.

“He's the only survivor, we need to get him to talk,” Kyle said. Guy frowned before making a ring construct lifting up the crate.

“Let's take him out of here then.”

They landed in a field out of sight of the compound and behind a hill that obscured even the tree tops of the forest.

The alien peeked out over the box's edge and seemed to calm down slightly. He at least stopped mumbling.

“Alright,” Guy said. “Can you tell us what happened?”

The alien, who still sat at the bottom of the crate, didn't look happy about it but he nodded.

“He just showed up. Came walking out of the forest and- and-” the alien started trembling again. He looked up at Guy and Kyle with wide and terrified eyes. “The bushes. They- they moved. Like a river of twigs and thorns they moved underneath him and when he came to the fence the bushes rose up and tore through the fence. They did the same to the doors before- before,” he paused. Trembling again he closed his eyes tight.

“The bushes started to change they became these creatures.”

“Creatures?” Kyle asked confused.

“I don't know how to describe it,” the alien said. “They were like men except entirely made up out of those thorny bushes.”

Kyle caught Guy shooting him a look. It sounded a little bit too unbelievable to be true, but at the same time, they both had seen a lot of unbelievable shit during their time as Green Lanterns.

“Bullets didn't harm them. I hid when the screaming started. Hid in this crate.” He patted the side of the crate. “Good box. Good box,” he mumbled. “I could still see though, could still see. This hole here,” he pointed at a hole in the side of the box. “I could see them. The monsters they ripped out everyone's hearts. Reached into everyone's chest and just pulled out their hearts. It was horrible. So horrible.”

He started shaking his head and rock back and forth again.

“What happened next?” Kyle asked. Trying to sound gentle. Because this alien was clearly traumatized by his experience.

“Kerets confronted him.”

“Who did Kerets confront?” Guy asked.

The alien looked up at them again.

“Grax.”

Guy cursed under his breath.

“Grax?” Kyle asked. The alien nodded his head rapidly.

“Yes, yes. That treacherous monster. He was controlling them. He was controlling the monsters. They used to be associates. Saw them many times together. Kerets and Grax. Secret meetings no one knew any details.”

“And what happened then?” Kyle said. Trying to get the alien to continue the story. There was nothing else they could do. They had been completely fooled.

“He- Grax said that Kerets had been a useful second in command but that he no longer had any use of him. And then- then- then-” The alien started rocking back and forth again. Kyle closed his eyes and tried to sigh as quietly as possible.

“Continue,” Kyle said. The alien's head snapped up to look at Kyle with wide terrified eyes.

“He transformed!” He exclaimed. “He turned into one of the monsters. But he was twice as tall! And then he waved at Kerets and-” he made a gagging noise looking away. “The side of Kerets’ face, where he was missing one of his eyes, it just exploded and out of all the blood and brain matter came this large piece of the same evil bush. It wriggled up to Grax and attached itself to his hand where he was missing a finger. Then he just turned himself back into Grax!”

“He tricked us,” Guy said and cursed again. He tricked us and we just let him.”

“We didn't know,” Kyle said, but Guy was stomping off cursing. Kyle bit his bottom lip, watching him for a second before bending down to check on the alien again. “What did Grax do next?” Kyle asked.

“He took the ship. He just took it. Left the bushes there, they stopped moving though. But I didn't dare move.”

“Might have saved your life,” Kyle muttered. “But if he has a ship, and it's been hours since we saw him last he's probably left the planet and he could be anywhere.”

He looked over at Guy and thought of joining him in the pointless cursing because how were they going to find Grax now. There was a whole universe for him to hide.

“It's just a shuttle,” the alien said. Kyle looked back at him. “Just a shuttle. It'll only take him to our ship. It is hiding behind the moon. There might still be time for you to catch up to him.” He gave Kyle a questioning look. “But why?”

“Because we catch the bad guys,” Kyle said. “I'm going to send you to Oa.”

“Yes! Yes! Take me away from here!” The alien shouted and jumped up on his feet.

“There will be a trial for your involvement in the smuggling,” Kyle said.

“I don't care, just get me off this planet!”

Kyle wrapped the box and alien in an airtight bubble which would be able to take it to Oa in no time at all. He also added a note to Kilowog, trying as best he could to explain some of the things that had happened and asked him to gather a group of lanterns and track Kyle and Guy's rings and come to their aid. When he sent it all off into space Guy came back to join him.

“So?” Guy asked.

“We're chasing after Grax,” Kyle said.

“Good,” Guy said. A serious and determined look on his face. “I want to punch him in the face.”

“I'm not gonna stop you,” Kyle said.

Guy made them a construct rocket.

“I do hope we have enough charge in our rings for this,” Kyle mumbled. Guy shrugged and they took off.

“This'll be over quick. I'm sure they'll last,” he said. As they barreled up through the air and into space, leaving the planet and the forest far below them.


	9. Chapter 9

“Their moon isn't supposed to have a smaller moon, right?” Guy asked as they were approaching the planet's moon.

“No,” Kyle said. “And even if it did, I doubt it would have spikes.”

The ship was a round ball of the same bushes that were down on the ground, but much much larger and with very big thorns sticking out of it. Making it look a little bit like a curled up hedgehog.

“How are ge going to get inside of it?” Kyle asked as their rocket made its way even closer. Kyle wondered if Grax knew they were coming. Surely the ship must have some way of telling if there were approaching ships. It didn't seem to have any weapons tough as they were allowed to get quite close without anything happening

“I'll scan for an airlock or something. Probably need to ditch the rocket.”

They did, and flew through space on their own propulsion. Guy pointed towards the ship and Kyle followed him. Without the rocket it was quite easy to make their way past the big thorns and squeeze between the large heavy branches, which seemed about as hard as metal, but when scanned the ring claimed they weren't – they were made out of something unknown.

Beneath all the thorns there was a metal shell, and a hatch. Using a construct Guy was able to pull the lever and open it. They both flew inside, closing the hatch behind them and Kyle consulted the ring to find out which buttons on the panel to push to get the oxygen rushing into the airlock.

“Now let's find Grax and get the hell out of here.” Guy said.

They walked in silence. Unsurprisingly the hallways they walked through were covered in bushes, and in places the bushes they walked on swayed as if there was nothing underneath them at all, and they were just a weird kind of bridge.

“Ten bucks on this being one of the first steps in a plot to take over the universe,” Guy said after a while. He was walking behind Kyle, so Kyle looked over his shoulder at Guy, and raised an eyebrow.

“Really? That's pretty unoriginal.”

“Most bad guys don't have enough brain cells to think of a more original plan.”

“Maybe, but if it isn't something else. This feels more like a take over or destroy this specific planet, kind of plan to me.”

“So you in for ten bucks on anything except a “take over of the whole universe”-plan.”

“Sure,” Kyle said. 

He opened his mouth to say that Guy still owed Kyle for the last time they made this bet. When Guy, as always had bet that it was a step to take over the universe but in reality the bad guy had just really wanted to transform everyone into bunnies because he was lonely – Kyle still had a photo of Guy as a reddish-brown, angry bunny. 

Kyle didn't even get one syllable out of his mouth however, because that was when the bushes underneath his feet opened up a gaping hole and he fell through it.

He couldn't help screaming as he fell down a long dark shaft. He landed on more bushes. They softened his impact, but it was like walking in a bouncy castle with them moving and swaying and he stumbled a little bit. He felt something circling his legs, and looked down, a tendril of the thorny twigs was closing around his legs. Kyle tried to pull his leg away, but it tightened its grip, and he lost his balance falling forward. His fall hindered by another tendril of the bushes wrapping around his stomach and pulling him upright and back against a wall. Two more tendrils crept down from the ceiling, grabbed his wrists and pulled them up above his head. They were all surprisingly strong.

Kyle looked around himself, feeling more annoyed than worried. He'd been in worse situations and besides he knew Guy would be making his way to find him. He was in a small room, completely covered in bushes from floor to ceiling. Underneath the bushes on the ceiling were fluorescent lights that, while not completely successful at illuminating the room completely, at least provided some light. A door at the far end of the room opened, Grax stepped through it and closed it behind him.

“Ah, the lanterns,” Grax said. “I was hoping to get away sooner, but it takes a while to start up this ship.”

“Also I guess the redecorating took some time,” Kyle said. Looking around the room again, this time with an exaggerated critical expression. “Too bad for Kerets and his gang that they don't get to see what you've done with the place.”

Grax shrugged.

“They were no longer of any use to me.” Said with complete detachment, it wasn't just cold the way he said it, it was completely without any feeling whatsoever.

“What are you?” Kyle asked. Partly because he was curious. But mostly because the longer he made him talk the more time Guy would have to find them. Kyle could probably free himself. He still had the ring and he still had a charge in it. But Guy'd had a couple of rough days lately and it would make him happy to save someone.

“And is your name really Grax?” Kyle added.

“No, not really, we do not have names. But Grax is the name I have been going by for a very long time. I have grown- not fond of it, but I am used to it.” 

He walked further into the middle of the room. Hands behind his back, and eyes calculating as he watched Kyle. Kyle noticed that he didn't wear an eyepatch now, but instead of a missing eye there just wasn't anything there at all. Just blue skin where an eye should have been.

“And as for your second question. We call ourselves the Sraxxch.”

Kyle made the ring transmit all of this to Guy. Wouldn't want Guy to drop in and need Kyle to fill him in. He wasn't sure Guy would really need the information, but just in case.

“Never heard of you,” Kyle said with a grin. Grax just gave him an disinterested look. Either he didn't care or he was a good actor.

“We were born in pods on a planet long forgotten. Millions of us. We have drifted through space for millennia. Every now and again one of us might crash on a planet.”

“That what happened to you?” 

Grax nodded.

“I did. Had the unfortunate luck to end up on a planet already dying. It was also uninhabited by sentient beings,” he paused and looked over at Kyle. “Unless you count the horses. But I don't. They are nothing but dumb beasts.”

“The unicorns?” Kyle asked. “Thought they could sense you.”

“They can, but they couldn't do anything.” He looked smug at that for a moment before his expression went serious once more. “Didn't think I'd ever get off that worthless piece of rock.”

“But then the smugglers showed up,” Kyle said.

“You accessed the captains log in the ship?” Grax asked.

“Yeah,” Kyle said. “You knew we found it?”

“Of course. I know everything that goes on in that forest.” He looked at Kyle again. “Want me to continue the story.”

“Sure why not,” Kyle said. Trying to shrug despite being tied up with his arms over his head. “I don't have anything else to do. You were lucky that the smugglers showed up.”

“Yes,they thought that bringing as many things from the planet besides the beasts would be a good thing. Label it as the last remnants of a dead and gone world and sell it to highest bidder. They accidentally brought a piece of me with them. That is all it takes for us to live on, merely a small twig and we will grow again.”

“I tainted their samples, grew and spread everywhere. The dumb beasts knew I was there but could do nothing. And eventually I grew enough in strength I could split off a piece of myself to inhabit the captain's body. Took over his mind bit by bit.” Grax was smiling now, a disturbing small twitch of his lips. “Made him kill the rest of his crew. Flushed them out the airlock. I told him things, made him do things, but more importantly made him not do certain things.”

“Like kill you,” Kyle said. Grax looked at Kyle, still smiling and cocked his head a little to the side.

“Oh, I can't be killed. You should keep that in mind.”

“The crash on this planet. Was that your doing?” Kyle asked.

“No, something unexpected got in the way. I wanted to go to this underground black market for these smugglers. Imagine how I would spread across the galaxy if I could infect every single ship that came and went from there?”

Kyle shuddered a little. It wasn’t a very pleasant thing to imagine. 

“But no, we ended up on this miserable rock of a planet. It barely had sentient life forms, they were so far from space travel. Still are. Those pathetic wastes of life.”

“Well, they aren't going to be able to develop space travel if they keep having to move because a forest is trying to take over their planet,” Kyle pointed out.

“They brought that on themselves. Planting those trees. There's a force in those trees. Those oaks. I tainted them with my essence and something happened which I hadn't predicted. Besides After a while I learned I didn't need space travel, so it suited my purposes. I adapted. Letting my larger body grow and expand. I was going to drain the planet until it broke apart leaving me free to float off into space again. It would have been uncomfortable but better than being stuck on that rock.”

“And during the centuries that passed I could jump from body to new body. Live among them and kill them. Until eventually I grew so powerful I could create my own body.”

He stretched his arms out.

“And it is a glorious body,” he said.

At that moment a hole in the ceiling opened up and Guy dropped down through it. Landing crouched on his feet.

“Nah, it's not that great,” he said. “I've seen better,” he said while looking straight at Kyle, and winking.

“Stay right where you are,” Grax said.

Guy straightened up and looked at Grax with disbelief.

“And who's gonna make me? You? Really?”

Grax gave Guy an unimpressed look and raised one of his arm. Three figures made out of the bushes rose up from the floor. Branches twisted together to form vaguely humanoid looking shaped creatures, with elongated limbs and heads. Two of them grabbed Guy's arms and held him. The third just stood slightly to the side of Guy, and opened a mouth showing off the rows of thorns it had for teeth.

“Cool party trick,” Guy said, and tried to shrug off the hold the things had on him, but they just tightened their branches around his arms and hands.

“I would recommend not moving,” Grax said. Kyle's gaze was drawn to him again. He was starting to transform, turning into one of those creatures made up out of the bushes as well. He was taller than the three holding Guy. He walked up to Kyle. He stopped beside Kyle on his far side from Guy. He put his arm over Kyle's shoulder and around his neck. Tightening just a little bit too make it a little bit difficult for Kyle to breath.

Grax lifted his other arm, the end of it turning into long spindly fingers with thorns at the tips. He raised it, pointing a finger close to Kyle's eye. Kyle tried to lean his head further back to try and get away, but the arm around his throat tightened.

“Don't take another step lantern,” Grax said. Head turned towards Guy. His voice had changed it was more high pitched and breathy now. “I will make my way inside your partner's body. Claiming it as my own, make him my puppet. He won't die mind you, he will still be alive, but no longer able to control his own actions.”

“Let go of him,” Guy said. Voice low and threatening, and he glared at Grax.

“No can do,” Grax said. “I will possess his body and he will be lost to you forever. You see I can make my way inside of him without killing him, but once I leave. Well, I'm sad to say that will leave a rather large gaping hole in the side of his head. So it's either you kill him or I do. What would you prefer?”

“Fuck you,” Guy growled, and tried to wrench his arms free. Kyle saw his wince when the movement pulled at his shoulder.

“I could, quite literally fuck myself yes,” Grax said. “But I'm not a narcissist. No instead I am going to deal with the two of you because you see this is an opportunity too good to waste. I thought I would be stuck on that planet for a couple more centuries but then my luck changed again and Kerets crashed on the planet. It's fitting is it not, that another smuggling crew would give me my new opportunity to leave?”

“However I discovered I was not powerful enough to leave into space yet. Not with my consciousness still intact. Of course I could break off a piece of me and send it along with the smugglers that came to rescue Kerets when he had crashed. But I'd still be left on the planet and through the centuries I have grown rather fond of my conscious mind.”

“No, I needed to wait until I had grown more powerful. So I made Kerets my second in command. He would lead his smuggling operation from this backwater planet and I would bide my time until finally at last I could survive being parted from my larger body still on the planet. And as this time has come now, I am not going to let you two stand in my way of leaving and conquering the universe.”

“Oh, come on,” Kyle groaned. “Really? That's your plan, taking over the universe. How unoriginal.”

“What?” Grax asked.

“Nothing,” Kyle said with a sigh then he looked over at Guy, because really this had gone on long enough.

“Guy remember that thing on Fx-1818?” Kyle asked. Guy gave him a confused look for a moment and then his eyes widened.

“Oh,” he said with a smile. But then frowned. “But I don't have a pot of soup,” he said, “or a rope” he added, “or a rubber chicken that squeeks when you squeeze it.”

“It doesn't have to be exactly the same,” Kyle said.

“What? What's happening here?” Grax asked. Looking confused. “I'm threatening to kill you here, and suddenly you two are having a discussion?”

Kyle turned his head a bit to look at Grax.

“Have you ever heard of a noodle incident?” Kyle asked to further distract him. Grax was glaring at him now. And also stepping away a bit from Kyle, loosening the arm around his neck.

“What? Why aren't you taking this more seriously?”

“I don't know,” Kyle said. “Maybe because we have faced bigger threats than you? Or maybe we're just tired from spending all that time in that forest.”

A loud splash came from the direction of where Guy was standing, followed by two thumping sounds. Grax and Kyle looked over at him. One of the monsters now had a green construct bucket on its head, there had probably been construct water in it as well, but it had disappeared. The two holding Guy were now missing their legs and had also dropped their grip on Guy who was looking at them with a grin.

“I told you not to move,” Grax growled.

“In fairness to Guy,” Kyle started. “I don't think he even had to move.”

Grax turned his head again and glared at Kyle. Moving his finger closer to Kyle's eye.

“I said I would possess him if you did anything,” Grax said.

“You were implying you'd do that regardless of what I did,” Guy said.

“Say goodbye to him then,” Grax growled. His finger started to wiggle, and about to detach from his hand.

Kyle made a construct of a knight’s helmet, with the visor down, he didn't bother making the rest of the suit of armor. The thorn of Grax's finger hit the helmet with a soft ping.

“Takes a little bit more work if you want to take my body for a joyride,” Kyle said. He made the ring blast away the bushes holding his arms, as well as hacking off the arm around Kyle's neck. Grax screamed at the same time as Guy came flying, tackling Grax and pushing him into the far wall.

“No!” Grax shouted and shoved Guy away with such force Guy was flung away towards the middle of the room. Kyle caught him in a baseball mitt while getting rid of the last of the bushes holding him. They reached out for him again, but he jumped away from them.

Grax stumbled up on his feet again, and staggered out off the room. Another bush-creature rising up behind him standing in front of the door.

Kyle hurried towards Guy.

“That was nothing like how we did it on Fx-1818,” Kyle said.

“Well, there was no bridge of rainbows made by pixies available anywhere nearby,” Guy protested. “Besides it worked out. More or less.”

Guy blasted a hole in the chest of the bush creature in front of the door and they hurried through it. Only to be met by four more on the other side shambling towards them.

“They remind you of zombies? Guy asked. “I mean the ones in the movies, not the ones we dealt with.”

Kyle cocked his head to the side and regarded them. They were moving slowly, not really lifting their legs and feet to walk, arms outstretched in front of them.

“Yeah, there's something zombie-like about them you're right,” Kyle said. Shooting one of them in the head. Guy made a shot gun and fired it at another one, also a headshot. Kyle shrugged and made a shotgun construct of his own. Together they took down the other four.

They started running down the corridor, but had only gotten a few feet when more of the creatures rose showed up. One rising from the ground, another stepping out of the wall.

“Wonder where he went,” Guy muttered.

“No clue, but I'm thinking we carry on running and as long as there's these creatures we're probably on the right track.”

The ran down the hallway and around a corner, only to run straight into three of the creatures. Kyle who was running behind Guy, managed to stop, while Guy just barreled straight into the one nearest. Kyle shot one of the creatures and aimed his rifle against the second when he noticed Guy wasn't backing away from the one he had run into, instead choosing to just punch it. Kyle aimed above Guy's head and shot the head off the creature at the same time as Guy punched a hole straight through its chest, before slamming it into the wall.

“I had that one!” Guy protested, while Kyle shot the remaining one. The good thing about construct shotguns was that they didn't require re-loading.

“You were being overprotective again,” Guy complained.

“Why weren't you standing back and using your ring?” Kyle asked. “That wound still isn't healed you know. It's bleeding again.” When he looked at Guy he noticed how many places his uniform was torn, every torn piece also had scratched bleeding skin underneath it.

“How much ring power you got left?” Kyle asked.

“Enough.” Guy said and turned away from Kyle.

“Let's go,” he said and started running. Kyle didn't have much choice but to follow.

They reached another corner and Guy was about to round it when Kyle grabbed his arm and held him back.

“Let’s avoid any more ambushes.” He crouched down low and looked around the corner. Two creatures were standing guard. Kyle leaned back again and said over his shoulder to Guy.

“Watch my back.”

“Always” came Guy's response back, and Kyle opened his mouth to say something more but shut it again. Instead still crouched down he leaned out into the corridor and fired at one of the creatures. He hit it in the stomach, creating a hole but both it and the other one started moving towards them. 

Kyle straightened up and took aim again, at the same time as Guy stepped around the corner and using a massive bazooka blew up one of the creatures. Kyle shot the remaining one.

Kyle looked for more of them and spotted one standing further up the corridor. Missing an arm, but one was growing out of the wall and about to attach itself to the creature.

“I think that's Grax!” Kyle shouted and started running. Guy followed him.

Ahead of them the arm attached itself to Grax, and he transformed back into the Hedrian body. Blood was dripping down his arm, but he started running. He rounded another corner. And when Guy and Kyle rounded it was gone, due to a t-cross section. The blood on the floor showed the way however.

“He went left,” Kyle said and pointed.

“Lead the way,” Guy said.

Kyle glanced around the corner and didn't see any more creatures and so walked around it while calling out over his shoulder, without really thinking about it.

“Don't get too distracted watching my back.”

He took two steps when suddenly another creature dropped down from the ceiling right in front of him. Kyle might have let out a surprised yelp because he really hadn't expected that. He didn't bother with the construct shotgun and just blew it apart.

A strong hand gripped his arm and spun him around.

“You are flirting,” Guy exclaimed. Kyle wasn't sure if it was an accusation or what, Guy mostly looked confused, and let go of Kyle's arm.

“Uh,” Kyle said.

“I don't get you,” Guy said, sounding a bit annoyed and frustrated now. Throwing his hands in the air. “I thought you were flirting down there in the forest, but I wasn't sure and then you never answered me when I asked-”

“Should we really have this conversation now?” Kyle interrupted by asking, because another creature was rising up behind Guy.

“Yes!” Guy said and glared at Kyle. “Why didn't you answer me?”

Kyle pointed behind Guy.

“Behind you,” Kyle said. Guy turned half around and blew the head off of the creature. Then turned back to Kyle.

“So?” Guy asked.

“I don't know what the question was,” Kyle protested. He opened his mouth to say that the creature was still walking towards Guy, with its arms outstretched. Kyle shook his head instead, and leaned to the side and shot off the legs of the creature.

“I asked you out!” Guy exclaimed, and without turning around just aimed his ring behind himself and blew the creature apart.

“That was a bit unnecessary,” Kyle mumbled. “It couldn't even move anymore.”

Guy just glared.

“You were delirious.” Kyle said. “you spent the evening before that shouting Tora's name!”

Guy aimed his ring to the side of Kyle and fired, blowing up another creature. Kyle sighed and looked down.

“I didn't know okay,” Kyle said. “Hell, before we ended up in that cursed forest I'd never even thought about-” he paused and bit his lip. “I didn't know you were interested.”

“And everyone keeps saying I'm not subtle,” Guy muttered, which made Kyle snort trying to hold back a laugh. Guy shot him an annoyed look.

“I didn't know,” Kyle said, composing himself and the annoyed expression slipped from Guy's face.

“Really? Huh? Well, I suppose I was trying to figure out how to tell you.” He looked down, licking his lips, drawing Kyle's eyes to his mouth. Guy looked back up again through his eyelashes. “But you were flirting with me weren't you?”

“Yes,” Kyle said, licking his own lips. A thrill going through his body at the way Guy's eyes followed Kyle's tongue. “I started thinking about what it would be like kissing you,” Kyle said. “And that sort of led to flirting,” Kyle continued. While Guy took a step closer to Kyle who took one step back. “I wasn't expecting you to, you know, respond.” He bit his bottom lip. Guy took another step closer and Kyle back up against the corridor wall. His heart beating fast, and his whole body tingling with anticipation.

“Kissing huh?” Guy asked. Voice low and he started leaning in closer.

“Yes,” Kyle said, his voice low as well.

Guy raised his hand, cupping Kyle's cheek in his palm and Kyle couldn’t help leaning in to the touch a little bit. He swallowed hard. Guy leaned in even closer his mouth now mere inches from Kyle's. Soft warm breaths mingling between them. Noses almost touching.

“Is this what you want?” Guy asked.

“Yes,” Kyle said, a little bit breathless.

Guy started to lean in even closer and Kyle closed his eyes moving in to meet him...


	10. Chapter 10

Kyle leaned in, and was met with air, and Guy shouting. He opened his eyes and saw Guy pulled away by the bushes. Thick bands of thorny branches pulling Guy against the opposite wall. Kyle tried to go to him, when he felt the bushes wrap themselves around him too.

“I hate this place,” Kyle muttered with heat. Using the ring he blasted apart the bushes holding him. Guy did the same.

They bumped into each other in the middle of the corridor, and Kyle looked into Guy's eyes.

“We should-” Guy started.

“Later,” Kyle said. Though it took effort to say it, and he had a hard time not staring at Guy’s lips.

Guy hesitated, but then nodded and they started running again. Reaching another t-section the blood trail took a right and Kyle started to go around the corner when he noticed Guy stopped. He looked at him, but Guy seemed to be listening to something his ring was telling him.

“What is it?” Kyle asked when Guy let his hand drop to his side.

“How much charge you got left?” Guy asked, instead of answering Kyle's question.

“20%” Kyle replied. Guy bit his bottom lip, thinking.

“Why?” Kyle asked.

“I have a plan. I think. And since you have more juice left in the ring you get the fun job of tracking down Grax.”

“Care to fill me in on this plan of yours a bit more?” Kyle asked. “And how much charge do you have left?

“I'm going to the control room,” Guy said, again avoiding Kyle’s question. Kyle’s stomach was turning over, and he had bad feeling about all of it.

“To do what?”

“Grax said even the smallest piece of him was enough to live on? Well I've got an idea to get rid of all of it,” Guy said. A pleased smile bordering on smug on his lips he started backing away from Kyle towards the left corridor. “When I call and tell you to get off the ship do it right away, and leave Grax. Make sure he doesn't leave the ship. Oh, and keep him from the control room.”

“How much charge do you have left?” Kyle asked again.

“Enough to do this.”

“Guy,” Kyle started but Guy was already running down the corridor. Kyle considered just running after him. He didn't like the idea of splitting up. But he also didn't like this ship, and wanted to end this as quickly as possible at this point.

He started running down the right corridor and tried his best not to worry about Guy. He also had to stop thinking about almost kissing Guy because that too was too distracting and so not the right time. But it had almost happened, and he couldn't help wondering if it would happen later. They had to finish this, he had to focus on the mission. After they were done, well who knew.

The blood trail continued around another corner. Two creatures stepped out from the walls on either side of the corridor, blocking his path. Kyle didn't even stop running, just lifted his hand and blasted the two with his ring. Large gaping holes opened up in their chests but they kept moving. Using the ring to slice off their legs, he jumped over their heads, aided a bit by the ring.

Kyle kept running, but when he rounded the next corner he had only made it a few more feet when the blood trail stopped. Kyle skidded to a halt, and spun around on the spot watching the floor for more splashes of blood. It could be that Grax had managed to stop the bleeding and had continued running forward, but what if he hadn't. Kyle frowned. He looked at the walls beside him, and tried using the ring to remove some of the bushes. The growth strangely resistant to be budged, Kyle had to pour more of his willpower into it.   
He closed his eyes when the light from his ring grew stronger, and a whoosh sound accompanied the blast of light cleaning off the walls and floor for at least half a yard of the corridor in front of him.

He spotted the door right away, the handle smeared with blood. Not wanting to touch it, even with his gloves on, Kyle made a construct to open the door. On the other side was a spiral slope heading down. Kyle hurried down it. He reached another door, and opened it. On the other side was a large room, he had reached the cargo bay. A couple of smaller shuttle ships were crowded together in a corner, and in the middle of the room there were lots of metal crates. Grax was standing near the crates watching three of his creatures opening one of them. He hadn't turned back into a bush creature again. Kyle took a few steps inside the room, and Grax turned to face him.

“Ah, there you are,” he said. There was a bit of a distance between them, but he didn't have to raise his voice, and Kyle could clearly see his expression as he frowned.

“Where's your friend?” Grax asked.

“Around,” Kyle said with a shrug.

Grax tilted his head back, eyes half lidded.

“Hm,” he said thoughtful. “Where can he be going,” he mumbled. He looked back at Kyle. “You do know that I can sense and see everything?” he asked. “Every bush is an extension of me. And I can put up numerous obstacles for him.”

“Yeah, well I bet you are gonna have a hard time focusing on Guy if you're distracted.”

Kyle created a construct unicorn and sent it charging towards Grax.

One of the creatures stepped in front of Grax, who jumped out of the way. The unicorn's horn embedded itself in the creature carrying it off to the far end of the cargo bay. Meanwhile the remaining creature ripped open a crate. Grax reached into it and pulled out a really big gun.

_> Power levels at 15%<_ Kyle's ring helpfully informed him. If he wanted to keep making constructs he was going to have to drain power from his personal shield soon, which meant avoid getting shot was going to have to be a priority. Grax took aim and fired, Kyle jumped up in the air to avoid the white blast from the gun.

Kyle flew up high near the ceiling. Thankful for how high the ceiling was in the cargo bay. He made a few more construct unicorns and sent them towards Grax. Grax countered by making a wall of his creatures rise up from the floor.

“I can do this forever,” Grax said. Taking aim and firing again. Kyle sped towards the other corner. The shot hit the ceiling and some bushes burned away. “How long can you do this?” he asked.

“Oh don't you worry about me,” Kyle said. Around them the ship seemed to rumble for a second.

“We're moving,” Grax said, starting to get the distant look on his face again.

“Hey!” Kyle shouted. “Focus on me!” He shot a beam of light at Grax, and because he was distracted it hit him in the shoulder throwing him backwards. He landed on his back, skidding a few meters.

Kyle started flying towards him. Kyle didn't notice the massive tentacle of bushes rising up from the floor and swinging wildly, until it hit him. He was struck in the stomach with such force it knocked all the air from his lungs. He was sent flying into the wall, with his back first.

He caught his breath again, only barely managing to stay floating in the air. He felt sore, his back throbbed and he knew he was going to be very bruised. He looked over at Grax in time to see him aiming his gun at him.

“Oh shit,” Kyle said. There was a flash of white from the gun's muzzle. Kyle threw himself to the side and only barely avoied the blast.

Kyle created another flock of winged unicorns, ridden by _Amazons_ , some wielding spears and some bows and arrows. They attacked Grax from the air, firing arrows and throwing spears at him. The unicorns swooped down and used their horns to dispatch of any creatures Grax created. Grax fired wildly towards the constructs, and each time he hit the construct disappeared. Kyle created more, he also added flying monkeys throwing rocks, because the game was just to distract Grax.

He wished he knew the whole plan, and also for how long he was expected to distract Grax.

_> Power levels 12%<_

He hoped he wasn't going to have to distract him for much longer.

Hands made of bushes rose up, grabbed the winged unicorns pulling them down to the floor and crushing them.

Hands also came out from the wall Kyle was floating near, but Kyle punched one of them and flew away from the wall. That was when he noticed the bush creature left unassailed near a control panel by the cargo bay doors. Kyle sent a beam of light that blasted a hole in the creature. A second beam took out it's head and a third the legs. It fell to the ground, just as the cargo bay doors, with a loud screeching sound, started to slide open, and a klaxon started blaring.

Kyle looked from the doors to Grax, spotting his self satisfied triumphant smile. Air _wooshed_ out of the room, and anything not fastened to the floor started to slide towards the still opening door.

“We will all be sucked out!” Grax shouted, sounding triumphant. “I will float in space until a ship passes by, and I can hitch a ride.”

Kyle flew back to the wall, grabbing a tight hold on the bushes growing there. His constructs were tumbling through the air towards the door.

Kyle shot the control panel, which stopped the doors from opening, but didn't shut them either. He plugged the opening with another construct.

_> Power levels 10%<_

He really needed this to end soon.

Distracted he forgot to pay attention to Grax, and there was a sudden spike of pain in his leg as he was hit. Kyle screamed from the pain. The ring's protection had taken the worst of the pain, but not all of it. He flew away from the wall, firing towards Grax. His leg tingled and then went numb.

Grax was dodging, and creating creatures left and right to take the blasts from Kyle's ring.

Kyle growled from the frustration.

He flew at high speed high over Grax head, and then did a tight turn back. He swooped down, and came from behind Grax. Before he could turn around Kyle grabbed him under his arms and lifted him up. He flew at high speed towards the wall. Holding up Grax in front of him he shoved him hard into the wall.

Kyle dropped him. Grax fell screaming, and screamed even louder as he landed wrong on his leg and it bent under him. Kyle dove down and picked him up again, this time pushing him with his back first against the wall. Kyle held his hands against Grax's chest. Creating constructs to wrap around grax holding his arms against his sides, and another construct platform under Grax's feet.

“There's one thing I'm not getting,” Kyle said. There were probably a few things he didn't understand about any of this, but he couldn't remember them all right now. “You'd probably feel less pain in your true form. Hell, you'd heal better in your true form wouldn't you?” Kyle asked. Grax opened his mouth, but at that moment Kyle remembered something Grax had said earlier, about how he didn't just want to send a small aspect of himself away.

“You don't think of it as your true form anymore,” Kyle said slowly.

“Ridiculous,” Grax said.

“You've spent so long living as one of the natives on that planet, you don't want to be in another shape.”

“Not true.”

“But it is. It's why we will beat you,” Kyle said and wiped away some of the sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand. When had it started to get so hot in here? He continued talking.

“Because you'd rather save yourself as you are in this body. You are more preoccupied with preserving your consciousness in this body-”

“I don't know what you think you have figured-”

“You have evolved,” Kyle said. “You shouldn't have this much free will and thought process. You have gone to this length. This elaborate plan, because you are different,” Kyle said, and continued:

“I am going to take a guess, that any little piece of your larger body if it actually travelled somewhere would just end up on a planet and then slowly drain that planet just like you are all programmed to do. But not you. No you have a plan to take over the universe, to rule it. You gained your mental abilities when you possessed that smuggler captain didn't you. There is a part of him inside your mind.”

“This is nothing but guesswork.”

“Sure, but it's-” Kyle didn't get to finish his sentence as at that moment a hand grabbed the back of his uniform and pulled him away from Grax.

Kyle was thrown to the floor, where more hands grabbed hold of him, holding him down. Up above, Grax was being freed from Kyle's bonds by more bushes, and then slowly lowered down.

He walked over to Kyle and stood above him, looking down.

“Even if you are right, that don't mean you're going to win.”

Kyle felt sticky with sweat underneath the uniform. It was really getting quite uncomfortably hot inside the cargo bay now.

“Is it getting hot in here?” Kyle asked. Grax glared, probably annoyed that Kyle didn't respond to his threat. Then he frowned.

“It is rather warm,” he said.

Kyle was distracted though, as at that moment Guy's voice came through the ring.

_“Kyle, get out. Get out now!”_

Kyle took a deep breath. He was the only one who could hear Guy, and so he couldn't respond. Instead he created a massive fan, which he turned on.

“Wh- What?” Was all Grax had time to say before he flew backwards due to the extremely strong wind generated by the fan. Grax screamed as he flew a couple of feet and landed on his ass.

_> Power levels 8%<_

Kyle pulled and tore at the bushes holding him, but they were strong, feeling more like iron than wood. He didn't want to use the ring to cut through them, but every time he thought he managed to loosen the bindings around his wrists a little bit, they tightened again.

_“Kyle? Kyle!”_ Guy's voice was tinny through the ring, but there was real worry in it, and Kyle couldn't help the flash of panic shooting through him. His breathing sped up, as did his heart beat and he wasn't sure if he was sweating because the heat was rising, or if it was because he was stressed. He didn't have a choice. Using the ring he blasted himself free.

_> Power levels 7%<_

He shot up in the air, flying at full speed towars the opening between the cargo bay doors. The construct letting him through, but would keep everything else inside. Speeding out into space he spun around and saw the ship plunging towards the sun.

_“I'm out,”_ he told Guy.

_“Great, then I'm leaving now.”_

_“What?” Kyle asked._ His heart jumping up in his throat. He had assumed Guy was already out of there. 

He started flying back towards the ship, even though it had already started to be consumed by the sun.

_“Safety precaution. Had to stay for as long as-”_ Guy was cut off. 

The ship plunged into the sun completely, and there was an explosion.

Kyle had to shield his eyes, and a shockwave made him spin away from the sun and the explosion.

“Guy!” Kyle screamed before he had even stopped spinning. 

He started flying towards the sun again. “Guy!” He shouted again.

His heart was beating like a jackhammer and he was finding it hard to breathe.

He couldn't lose him. Not now. This wasn't how it was supposed to play out. They hadn't even kissed yet.

Panic was almost consuming him, when suddenly he spotted something green ahead of him. He put in some extra speed he didn't know his ring still had left. A moment later he saw Guy floating around in space ahead of Kyle.

“Guy!” Kyle shouted again. Guy spun around. Kyle could barely make out his face at this distance, it was just a blur. But he could hear him through the ring.

_“Hurry.”_

Kyle flew as fast as he could towards him, when he saw the green outline of Guy's ring power start to flicker away, and his uniform start to disappear as well. Guy was out of ring power.

“No!” Kyle screamed, and made a construct bubble around Guy, which when Kyle hit it, let him in as well.

Kyle grabbed hold of Guy's arms. He was only in a white t-shirt and boxers with green lantern logos. Guy was warm to Kyle's touch, but he didn't look any more damaged than before.

“Guy,” Kyle said and breathed out a sigh in relief. His heart started to calm down, as had his breathing. Guy smiled at him.

“Kyle.”

Kyle licked his lips, and watched how Guy's eyes followed the movement of his tongue. Guy lifted his right hand and cupped Kyle's cheek. The band of Guy's ring was cold against Kyle's skin, but Guy's palm was hot.

“I'm going to kiss you now,” Guy said, and started to lean in towards Kyle.

“Finally,” Kyle breathed out and leaned in to meet him.

Their lips met and Kyle closed his eyes. Guy's lips were soft and wet sliding against Kyle's mouth. Guy's other arm went around Kyle's waist pulling him in tight against his chest and Kyle let himself sink deeper into the kiss. It was everything and more than he could have imagined. And maybe all the adrenaline in his body was amplifying it, but he didn't care. It felt like his whole body was singing. He'd thought maybe it'd be awakward kissing his best friend, but no, it just felt natural. They slotted together perfectly and left Kyle feeling breathless a they parted slowly, his forehead against Guy's and he didn't open his eyes. He licked his lips again and they were tingling. A long moment later, with his breathing calm again he opened his eyes and saw Guy's flushed, smiling face and Kyle smiled back.

“I-” Guy started, but was interrupted when a third voice called towards them from outside their bubble.

“Hey poozers!”

Kyle and Guy turned towards the voice and saw Kilowog and roughly 15 other lanterns coming towards them.

“Looks like the cavalry's arrived,” Kyle said.

“A bit late,” Guy said to Kyle, and then looking at Kilowog shouted “You're late!”

“You're both alive and I'm here aren't I?” Kilowog said. “And I brought these,” he held out Kyle and Guy's lantern batteries. “Figured you might need these.”

“Thank you,” Kyle said, with feeling. 

Kilowg handed the batteries to Kyle who gave one to Guy. Then he turned to Kilowog.

“Think you can head to the planet? We have a forest to clean up. Guy and I will be right behind.”

Kilowog hesitated, before shrugging. He and the rest of the lanterns took off. Once they were gone Kyle turned to Guy again. He reached out and touched Guy's hand.

“This,” he paused and looked up, and into Guy's eyes. “This between us. It's really happening right. I mean you were delirious down there on the planet and-”

“Kyle,” Guy interrupted and took Kyle's hand. “This really is happening if you want it to. I don't know, unless me being injured just hit all of your overprotective buttons plus your hero complex, and that was why you all of a sudden-”

“No. No. And it isn't sudden. Well, it is. But- It feels natural? Like I have been having these feelings all along, but only just now realized them? It had nothing to do with you being injured.” Kyle lifted their clasped hands and put them on Guy's chest. He could feel Guy's heart, beating a steady rhythm, and it was grounding.

“I'd rather you didn't get injured again to be honest, but with our line of work.” He gave Guy a crooked smile.

Guy leaned in and kissed him. Just a quick peck on the lips.

“We done talkin' about our feelings?” Guy asked.

Kyle couldn't help laughing a little, and then nodded with a smile.

“Yeah, we're done.”

“Good, 'cause the faster we get done with cleaning up that forest, the faster we can get back to Oa and do some more kissing.”

“Oh, is that all we're doing?” Kyle asked with a grin. Guy leered at him.

“Nah, I think I can think of a few more things we can do if you're up for them.”

“Oh, I will be,” Kyle said with heat in his voice. Delighted when it made Guy shiver.

Kyle held up his battery with one hand, and the other pointing the ring against it.

“You ready?” Kyle asked. Guy held up his battery as well.

“I was born ready baby,” Guy said and winked. Kyle snorted out a laugh and shook his head. They stood side by side, so close they were touching, and then started reciting the oath at the same time.

_“In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might beware my power, Green Lanterns light!”_


End file.
